The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

Hurricane Sandy was "way stronger" than Long Islanders expected, the general manager at one of the island's leading resorts said, telling The Tribune it experienced winds greater than 100 miles per hour.

Joel Friese, head of the Stella Maris Resort, said Sandy was leaving in its wake "a clean up effort of three weeks at least", with Long Island suffering downed electricity and phone lines, fallen trees and

roof damage to numerous buildings.

Long Island was the first Bahamian island to suffer a direct impact from Hurricane Sandy and its Category 2 winds. Mr Friese said: "We've had some damage. It was way stronger than we expected. The eye seems to have passed over a good portion of Long Island from south to north.

"We had winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from the east until the eye passed. Now the wind is coming from the west. It was not expected to be as strong as it was."

Mr Friese told The Tribune that a tour of the Stella Maris property and surrounding areas had revealed "lots of downed trees, partial to heavy roof damage on some of the buildings".

While the Stella Maris resort itself had suffered only shingle damage, there were some privately-owned homes within its property that had "whole pieces of roof missing".

"It's a clean up effort of three weeks at least," Mr Friese said, "and at a minimum we will have shingle repairs to a good portion of our buildings.

"We did all of this last year with Irene. This is a big blow considering this is only one year after that." He said there were no reports, though, of any injuries or fatalities on Long Island as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Mr Friese added that Hurricane Sandy had dumped "a tremendous amount of water" on Long Island, but said Stella Maris - and the rest of the island's resort industry - would recover well before the peak Christmas/New Year season.

He said 10 guests had ridden out the storm at Stella Maris and staff were in the process of serving dinner when The Tribune called.

The power is currently out in Long Island, with communications - both landline and cellular - cutting in and out.