The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Harbour Island businesses yesterday said they had to “roll with the punches” over the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend due to the loss of water supply and electricity woes.

Natasha Shepherd, owner/operator of Dunmore Realty, told Tribune Business the entire island was affected by utilities disruptions during the weekend that traditionally marks the start of the peak winter tourism season.

“We had to move people to different houses because it wasn’t just the water; it was the electricity, too. So we had to move people around to different houses that had electricity and which can pump the water because it had a holding tank. So we had two problems going on during the Thanksgiving day holiday,” she said.

“We had to move them to different houses that had a generator, not necessarily off of Harbour Island, but a house that would make water go through the system.” Tourists, vacation renters and second homeowners on Harbour Island had to “roll with the punches”, but most chose to stay because they were already on the island and had paid for their holiday.

“They had two choices; either stay in one house, or take the other option to move to another one, and most of them chose the other option,” Ms Shepherd said. “Nobody cancelled. They were already on the island. Rentals run from Saturdays to Saturdays, so they were already on the island for Thanksgiving, which was the Thursday.”

Utility service interruptions happen on Harbour Island “all the time”, and this past Thanksgiving was no different from previous interruptions, with both residents and visitors impacted. “What’s the use of bringing people in for tourism if you don’t have any running water or electricity,” Ms Shepherd asked.

Charles Carey, owner/operator of The Art Gallery in Harbour Island, said only people who have their own storage tanks were able to receive running water after the Water & Sewerage Corporation supply went down from Friday to Sunday morning.

“I wasn’t as inconvenienced because I have a holding tank, so I have water and I have a generator, and the power wasn’t off quite as long in town as it was in some of the other areas of the island,” he said. “It is always frustrating when you have a power outage, or any kind of outage from Internet to water, but we managed to get through.”

Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) electricity supply on Harbour Island was “down for four days” from Thursday, November 16, interrupting the lead-up to the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend. While BPL subsequently restored power to Briland early last week, the island was then struck by a water outage due to a “major mechanical failure” at the reverse osmosis plant that services North Eleuthera.

Power outages lasted a full day on some parts of Harbour Island, whereas on others it lasted up to 12 hours. “I heard there were some rental homes that didn’t have power for a couple of days,” Mr Carey said.

Another hotelier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while there were electricity and water disruptions their property was not affected because it has its own generator and water tank and “no guests were affected”.