The Tribune

LESLIE Miller, the chairman of BEC, got a first hand look at the destruction on some of the worst affected southern Family Islands which suffered a devastating direct hit from Hurricane Joaquin last weekend after he joined a relief flight on Saturday organised by the Tribune Media Group SOS - Save Our South initiative.

He saw the severe damage wrought on his organisation's infrastructure as he toured Crooked Island and San Salvador, witnessed the damage to roads and buildings and heard from residents about a dramatic rescue from a home smashed by a "tsunami" in Landrail Point.

As he surveyed the 25,000 gallon fuel tanks which had been shifted from their bases in Crooked Island he said that the job of repair was beyond BEC. Inspecting the large white cylindrical tanks, he said: "You need a crane really, a crane to put it back in its place. You see what happened, all of these (bolts holding the brackets) snapped. So you got to re-drill them to put them back in place. There's a lot of work to do. This is why I say you need private contractors to come into these islands You cannot rely on BEC to fix it."

Kevin Basden, General Manager of BEC, said that the company was bringing in additional teams to deal with the "considerable" damage on Crooked Island. "First of all our power station has been damaged; we will definitely replace that unit so we do have a generator unit that we will be transporting down here to replace the unit," he said. "Additionally there are quite a number of poles that are down so obviously we will be sending in teams to carry out pole changes. So that's the main thing."

He said the company's approach was to get power on for as many customers as possible despite the damage to homes. He said BEC has restored a "considerable amount of power" to a number of islands - Exuma, Ragged Island, Inagua and Acklins. "The islands where work remains are here in Crooked Island, Long Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador. We have additional teams from New Providence that we've already dispatched, we also have some of our partners from Carilec, a team for the British Virgin Islands already on the ground and others will be joining us," he said.

Most of the damage is on the overhead infrastrucure, Mr Basden said, adding that power had been restored down to The Bight in Long Island and in San Salvador, where generators were damaged and were being repaired.

The Crooked Island power plant was described as being completely destroyed with the fuel tanks having been shifted by the storm, allegedly because the holding brackets had not been bolted down correctly. The engines had been swamped with seawater and oil appeared to have spilled out. The building housing the BEC office had been tipped onto its side. There is a desperate need for bucket trucks to be shipped from Nassau to help in the restoration of power to San Salvador as the repair of utility poles and overhead cables involves men climbing up in spiked shoes to fix them.

Andrew Gibson told The Tribune of the dramatic rescue of his mother, Marina, who had to be taken up through the ceiling of his brother's house in Landrail Point, Crooked Island, after a "tsunami" swamped the house.

Leading a tour of the wrecked house in the worst affected part of the island on Saturday, the waterline was clearly high above the floor. "There was like a tsunami," he said. "The sea came up, they were in the house, the water came up all the way up to the ceiling over this truck. They had to take my mother up through the manhole (in the roof) in the house."

Mr Gibson's brother said the water was "11 or 12 feet high" as it surged through the house, forcing the people inside to scramble up into the roof space above the ceiling. "We had to push her (my mother), my wife and two young kids up, Ed's was there with his young baby too," he said. They thought they would have to go out through the roof but with winds of 150 to 160mph and shingles flying around they decided to stay in the ceiling space. "We were up in the ceiling all night," he said.

Mrs Gibson is now safely in Nassau, he said.

John Bostwick, who with Mr Miller was representing One Bahamas, looked on in horror at the devastation, coming across one house that looked as if it had "imploded" while residents kept assuring them "the storm did this, the storm did this".

On San Salvador on Saturday afternoon Paul Turnquest Sr, the chairman of the island's disaster preparedness committee, told The Tribune that things were slowly getting back to a semblance of order. "We are moving quite slowly because the building materials are limited. We had a group of persons coming in from Spanish Wells, they spent two days here with us and they were able to assist with repairing the office complex and the United Estates Primary School."

He said the physical structure of the school should be ready properly in another week or so and that preparations for the students are being made.