The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

SWEETING’S Cay has come a long way in three years since Hurricane Dorian, but more remains to be done before the community and people’s livelihood are fully restored.

The school and the community clinic are still not open. Repairs to the public dock are still not finished and some homes and businesses need repairs.

September 1 will mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Dorian. And Sweeting’s Cay residents are hoping and praying that another storm does not come their way.

During a visit to the cay this week, we saw some signs of progress. The vegetation has grown back, and even some mangroves are starting to regenerate on the shoreline.

More residents have also returned to rebuild the island and resume their lives.

Still, life on Sweeting’s Cay has not fully returned to its pre-Dorian days. Residents there are calling for help from the government with restoration.

“Life in Sweeting’s Cay is not the way it normally used to be, and people are trying to get (their lives) back together and do the best they can,” said Gladstone Russell, former chief councillor on Sweeting’s Cay.

According to Mr Russell, about 65 to 70 residents are now back on the cay. “But that number is not constant,” he said.

Mr Russell said the school and clinic have been repaired, but the school is still not officially open.

There are less than ten children living on the island who are ferried daily to mainland Grand Bahama and bused about 40 miles into Freeport to attend public school.

“We don’t have a nurse or doctor here,” he said, “but a doctor comes over twice a month either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.“

Mr Russell also said more money is needed to complete repairs to the public dock.

He expressed concerns about the dredging of the channel and possible danger to boaters at night.

“I am really concerned about it because it could be a hazard to the boaters at night. The sand on the western side as you come in and you go out, there is no marker on that to identify that there is a heap of sand there. If you run into that you know what is going to happen.”

With the storm’s anniversary approaching, Mr Russell and many of the residents have not got over the traumatic experience when the cay took a direct hit.

He described the events of that day as a “serious nightmare”.

“Dorian was a bad, bad experience for me,” he said. “I hate to talk about it. Dorian was a huge, serious monster.

“I think everybody that lives on the cay now is almost ready - if something comes again; we would not stay on the cay. Everybody would leave,” he said.

Some 30 adults and seven children that remained on the cay managed to survive the terrible two-day ordeal.

“That was a serious nightmare. You can still see the watermark here up to my roof and it was ocean in the front of here,” he said, pointing from his front porch.

“When I looked out there it was ocean. I could not stand in the road.”

Mr Russell is very grateful to Rotary and other NGOs who assisted them with repairs and rebuilding homes on the cay.

“I just want to know in terms of the recovery from DRA (Disaster Reconstruction Authority) and the Small Homes Repair, what they are going to assist the community with or how they are going to go about doing it?

“The only homes you see up are the ones that Rotary built and repaired some. And some people had couple dollars to rebuild their homes and got help from the foreign NGOs.

“A lot of people want to come back, but they don’t have the funds to start.”

Mr Russell said he received some assistance from DRA. “That run out long time and I need plenty assistance. I did the work myself,” he said.

Hulan Davis, 72, was also grateful to Rotary for building him a new home when his house was destroyed in the storm.

He said all that was left of his house was the foundation.

“I ain’t even find the roof - the only thing left was the toilet bowl on top of the foundation,” he recalled.

Mr Davis said what he experienced during Dorian is something he hopes to never see again.

“I would not want to see that again no more. I was in the water for three days straight,” he said.

He was at his cousin’s house a few feet away when the walls started shifting. “The blocks were moving, and I was praying to God for them to don’t fall because if it fall, we gone. There were four of us there. The water was over the building. I don’t know how we (survived) only through God’s mercy. I don’t want to see it no more in life.

“We had 30 odd people here and seven children and not a soul missing and gone, and this was land that was completely (underwater).”

Mr Davis was the first recipient of a newly built home by Rotary. He said that he is very happy and grateful for the new house, which was built on columns several feet off the ground.

He returned to Sweeting’s Cay last November after living in Freeport with his sister and daughter for two years following the storm.

The island lost all of its mangroves along the shore, Mr Davis said. But he said the island’s vegetation has come back.

“After the hurricane it was like a graveyard, everything was dead. You could not see a green tree nowhere, but everything is coming back to life now,” he said.

The elderly resident is optimistic. He believes that the island is getting back to normal. “Everyone is coming back home to rebuild their homes and build the place back up again - ain’t no place like home.”

His daughter has built a cottage for rental purposes just across the street.

Resident Leonard Feaster, 60, agrees that the island needs more assistance.

“There are lots of things that need to be done to get the island back up and functioning. We need help, but nobody is stepping in to really give us this help,” he said.

Mr Feaster, who owns a restaurant and bar, said the establishment is in need of repairs.

He said that if it wasn’t for Rotary he would not be in a new home.

Some residents did not want to speak and were afraid of any backlash.

“You can’t get nothing from DRA, I don’t know what is going on. I apply for more aid,” said one resident who did not want to be named.

The resident said that to still see buildings on the island with no roofs is depressing and is a reminder of the storm.

“Before Dorian we had a lot of visitors coming here,” the resident said. “I feel fearful. They say something is developing out there, I pray it does not come this way. We can’t take no more.”