The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THERE was no communication with Salina Point, Acklins, for at least four days due to the devastation from Hurricane Joaquin, according to member of Parliament for MICAL V Alfred Gray.

Updating the press after a government delegation completed an aerial assessment of the central and southern Bahamas on Saturday, Mr Gray said his “heart bleeds” for the residents of Acklins and Crooked Island who have been without electricity and phones for at least four days. He said because of the severe flooding, there was no communication with Salina Point in particular, which is 45 miles from the nearest settlement, and at that point, he had “no idea” how they fared during the storm.

Mr Gray hoped the government could find a way, “sooner rather than later”, to get the necessities to his constituents, who, he said, were suffering. He said the last time he spoke with an island administrator in Acklins, he was told that eight homes were completely destroyed.

“The immediate need is to get in there and assess the damage and to provide food and water,” Mr Gray said. “Acklins and Crooked Island have already experienced the most difficult lives between them in our country and any devastation will make life even more very difficult for them. I expect the government to get in there as soon as possible and if we can go in there by helicopter I will be extremely delighted because at least they will be able to see, touch and feel what we are trying to do. Now they only hear us by radio because all of the electricity has been out for three to four days so there is no television, if they don’t have battery radio that is the end of the communication system. There is no cell phone, there is no land line and so we are disconnected from them totally,” Mr Gray said.

“My heart bleeds for the people of Salina Point in particular because they are 45 miles from the nearest settlement and we have not heard anything from them since Wednesday and that to me is troubling and we don’t know what is going on there. They cannot come to us and we cannot go to them ... so hopefully we can find a way so that helicopters will be able to go and find out what is going on because otherwise we will not know. We cannot drive so the next best thing is to go from settlement to settlement, if it is only two minutes on the ground, in a helicopter and see what is going on and hear from the people as to what in fact has happened and make our assessment and respond to those troubles and other issues as soon as humanly possibly.”

Meanwhile, on Saturday Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government would spare no effort to bring help to those areas, but said relief efforts were hampered by damage to airports. The airports in Crooked Island and Acklins were said to be completely underwater and were not expected to be fully accessible until Monday. However, areas were accessible yesterday by helicopter or seaplane.

Dozens of residents in the southern Bahamas were trapped inside their homes from floodwaters during the slow but extremely dangerous passage of Hurricane Joaquin. Widespread flooding in Acklins was reported as early as last Wednesday.

Nine persons were rescued from nearby Samana Cay by the US Coast Guard on Saturday after being trapped there for three days without proper communication and shelter.

On Crooked Island, there were reports that one family had to escape a dangerous flash flood inside their home by escaping through a window. Images from the island show widespread damage to homes and buildings. Roofs were blown off, doors ripped away and portions of walls were damaged from the storm.

The storm also brought major damage to Long Island where buildings were damaged and in some cases destroyed and heavy flooding made some areas inaccessible.

There was also severe damage to Rum Cay, San Salvador - where the airport and nearby Club Med Columbus Isle resort suffered the full force of Joaquin - and Cat Island from the storm.