Pummeled by three fierce forces of nature over the last year, the small businesses that littered western Grand Bahama have either been obliterated or severely crippled in Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and now Wilma.
Prime Minister Christie says he’s optimistic about the future of Grand Bahama’s economy. Resorts like Our Lucaya are viewed as crucial to helping to improve the economic conditions of the island.
Officials are conducting a thorough evaluation of the impact. In the meantime, the organization that represents private sector interests on the island is already seeking to map out a plan to help devastated business owners wade through the bureaucracy and access critical capital once the focus shifts to rebuilding.
But despite the sheer destruction and seeming hopelessness that blanketed the communities that Wilma lashed, the President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce Doswell Coakley remained optimistic about a full business recovery.
“The people of Grand Bahama are resilient,” he said of the businesspeople who lost their livelihoods when Wilma’s storm surges came crashing ashore last Monday.
He admitted that the storms’ adverse impacts have been significant.
“The economic fallout for the mom and pop stores and all of the other businesses on the coastline and other areas in eastern Grand Bahama has been nothing short of devastating, bearing in mind that many of these businesses were not likely to have been insured, or not insured to the level that they ought to have been insured at,” Mr. Coakley explained.
Mom and pop stores dotted areas like Eight Mile Rock, Hunter’s, Pinder’s Point and Mack Town, the settlements that were lashed the hardest on that fateful day. Wilma’s ferocity also obliterated Sunset Village, the native cultural collection of stalls that was the equivalent of Arawak Cay in New Providence.
Fortunately Freeport – the economic and industrial hub – was left relatively unscathed.
Mr. Coakley admitted that the fallout that businesses in west and east Grand Bahama experienced has impacted the economy of Freeport to a certain extent but did not devastate it.
The Chamber expects to have some idea about the exact extent of the damage in the next two weeks.
In a preliminary assessment, the Minister of Housing Shane Gibson told the Bahama Journal that the government will likely have to spend between $10 million and $15 million on hurricane restoration and reconstruction in Grand Bahama.
But he was quick to point out that the numbers are not yet hard and fast. Officials were hoping to draw on donor support and the Consolidated Fund to foot the bill.
In fact, the private sector led initiative that raised $150,000 for Hurricane Katrina victims in the United States has been reconstituted to raise no less for storm weary survivors in Grand Bahama.
Chamber officials had been plotting substantial assistance for business owners on the island.
But despite the setbacks that the sector has encountered over the last year, Mr. Coakley remained optimistic that the situation would not chronically dampen entrepreneurial spirit.
He pointed out that the island’s economy is driven by three separate elements in Freeport and east and west Grand Bahama.
“It has been like a sleeping giant,” he said. “We have been trying to-make people understand that there are three different economies and east and West Grand Bahama do not have to rely solely on Freeport.”
He suggested that the government should become more aggressive in disseminating information to the business community on the island about the avenues that they can take to either boost their businesses or rebuild them.
The way ahead, he proposed, should be based on a tripartite relationship involving the government, the Grand Bahama Port Authority and the GB Chamber of Commerce which could lead to a paradigm shift.
“We feel that this approach would create a positive business environment and enhance the enthusiasm of those who are in business and those who desire to be in business,” Mr. Coakley said.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
