The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

ABACO business owners are thankful their livelihoods were spared significant damage from Hurricane Nicole, which passed over the island as a tropical storm on Wednesday before strengthening over Grand Bahama.

The storm’s path was eerily familiar to monster storm Dorian, however the impact was much less severe.

Some businesses experienced water and debris related damage, while others said business was not interrupted or disturbed at all.

In the aftermath, businesses on Green Turtle Cay are still without power with some saying that the storm felt like a hurricane as it passed over the island.

Molly McIntosh, general manager of The Bluff House Beach Resort and Marina in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco told The Tribune yesterday that she had a full house of guests and scheduled events, but no electricity or water.

“Nicole was stronger, certainly than I thought it was going to be, it had much more of an impact than I thought it would and I think most of the people on Green Turtle Cay kind of felt the same way, that we just weren’t quite prepared. We had a little shock there, because it was stronger and longer than we thought,” Ms McIntosh said.

“We had several trees come down, we had a little bit of roof damage. We have metal roofs and some of them flipped back and we have to get that repaired. Water came up over our docks,” she said.

Ms McIntosh said while she understands that power being restored on small islands takes some time and a lot of effort, her guests are concerned nonetheless.

“It’s not easy. We have no power, and water is just coming on now (yesterday). I have a full house. I have a wedding this weekend and every room, every villa is full,” Ms McIntosh said.

Eileen Hodgkins, a baker at another green Turtle Cay business, The Daily Bread Bakery, had similar sentiments.

“There’s been damage down at the dock where the freight boat comes in, that’s going to be a problem. But other than that, in the homestead, everybody did all right,” Ms Hodgkins said.

“We’re not open today (Thursday), too much debris in the yard, we have to get that straightened out first. I’m hoping to open tomorrow (Friday), if the power comes on,” she said.

Meanwhile, three businesses on Guana Cay experienced flooding, erosion and debris washing inland.

Achara Wallace, general manager and vice president of Grabbers Bed, Bar, Dock and Grille on Guana Cay said pending assessment of his business, he partly reopened yesterday.

“We’re ok, just a little bit of cleanup that we’re undertaking at the moment. But no damage that I’ve seen and that’s pending an assessment of the place,” he said.

“I’m planning to open this evening (yesterday) after we get most of the debris and cleanup done. We’ll open our bar with a short menu this afternoon and then we should be in full swing by tomorrow (Friday),” Mr Wallace said.

Troy Sands, of Nippers Beach Bar and Grill on Guana Cay, said business is up and running today, as the restaurant only received minimal water damage.

“Only the deck got messed up and the stairs going down to the beach,” Mr Sands said.

A representative from The Orchid Bay Yacht Club Marina said, “We didn’t receive any severe damage, only debris floating around, typical storm stuff. But on the Atlantic side, you saw some damage on the beach, just erosion mostly, on Guana Cay in general.”

On the mainland, in Marsh Harbour, businesses said they did not experience too much damage and have already resumed normal activities.

Rayanne Malone, secretary and shipping agent at United Abaco Shipping, said the business is running normally despite some rain and wind weathered through the night.

“It had some winds, but the water was not as much as what people would have expected, so that part was good, besides if you lived on the shoreline, if you lived on Front Street, it was barely any rain, thankfully,” she said.

Donna Darville, from Premier Imports, just across from the Marsh Harbour clinic, said, “We got minimal damage. You know part of (the planks) came off the side of the building, but everything else is in pretty good shape other than the flooding and water settled. Other than that everything’s fine here at the lumberyard.

“And the store, they say it’s pretty good too. We fared pretty good actually, thank God compared to Hurricane Dorian. We reopened today and we’re having a good flow of customers looking for lumber for repairs and stuff like that,” she said.

Further north, in Cooper’s Town, Javal McIntosh, owner of 3JConstruction said overall conditions were okay.

“I think we did all right here. Well the power went off from Tuesday around 10pm or 11pm, we got power back about Wednesday, after the storm had passed, about two hours after that. So we didn’t have any damaged lines or anything like that,” he said.

When asked if he was reopening yesterday Mr McIntosh said, “Maybe not today (Thursday), because we still have a lot of lingering showers but tomorrow everything should be back to normal.”