The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Long Island’s fishing fleet was “wiped out” by Hurricane Joaquin, Tribune Business was told yesterday, devastating “a big part” of its economy.

But some of the island’s boutique tourism resorts fared much better, with Joel Friese, Stella Maris’s general manager, telling this newspaper that the resort would re-open on October 14 as planned.

Speaking while in Nassau to pick up and order building material supplies to effect storm repairs, Mr Friese said southern Long Island had fared much worse than the north due to severe flooding and storm surges.

“The northern part of Long Island, we had intense winds, but the damage was way less than the southern part,” Mr Friese told Tribune Business, estimating Stella Maris’s initial repair costs at around $100,000.

“I think we had gusts of 130 miles per hour, if not 140 miles per hour, but our winds were constantly out of the north, which spared us a bit.”

Mr Friese said Stella Maris sustained some shingle and roof damage, “a window here and there but nothing major”, with landscaping also destroyed by Joaquin’s ferocity.

“Most of the debris has been moved,” he added. “Fifty per cent of it was done today.”

Stella Maris, in common with many Family Island resort and tourism-affliated properties, was closed when the storm hit, coinciding with what is traditionally the slowest part in the Bahamian stopover tourism calendar.

While electricity supply was “limited” on Monday, the resort is already hosting personnel from government agencies and insurance loss adjusters who have flown in to assess potential claims.

“We were closed from September to October 14. We’re going to open up on plan,” Mr Friese told Tribune Business.

“We’re informing guests there are certain limitations as far as doing things on the island. We haven’t had any cancellations yet.

“It’s around the $100,000 range for our losses; whatever we have to repair. That’s a guess at the moment, and doesn’t compare to someone who has lost their entire house or boat.”

While Stella Maris appeared to have been spared the worst of Joaquin’s wrath, Mr Friese was quick to point out that other Long Island residents and businesses had not fared nearly so well.

Estimating that it would likely require “tens of millions of dollars” to restore Long Island’s infrastructure, private sector and residential homes, he told Tribune Business: “The fishing fleet has been pretty much wiped out.

“That anchors in the Salt Pond area. I do know for a fact that most of those boats are either sunk or on the land. Most of them are badly damaged. That’s a big part of Long Island’s economy.

“There’s one or two fishing boats left, and I’m not sure what damage they have, but the rest are on the shore.”

Mr Friese said the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) had “huge problems” because many poles were down, and praised the “huge” amount of aid pouring into the storm-hit islands from the rest of the Bahamas and Florida.

He added that fishing boats from Spanish Wells had also arrived on Long Island to assist with the hurricane relief effort.

The Stella Maris general manager said shipping reconstruction materials to the central and southern Bahamas would prove a challenge, and his materials might take a week to arrive, as the mailboat departing yesterday was full by 10am.

“Just accessing money and being able to order materials is going to be an issue,” Mr Friese told Tribune Business, with Scotiabank (Bahamas) having recently downgraded its presence on Long Island to a service centre, leaving Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as the sole institution with a branch presence.

“Nobody has money sitting on an account for an event like this. I’m just shuffling money around between accounts to access funds for necessary repairs.”

“It has to be in the millions,” Mr Friese added of the damage. “I would think, just in terms of electricity, it is going to take weeks if not months.

“They have to source poles from the US from what I understand because there are not enough available in Nassau, and you have to factor in the other islands - Acklins, Crooked Island and Rum Cay are even more devastated.

“Getting back to normal, it’s going to take months, but for certain businesses it could take years. For agriculture it’s going to be years, and for the fishing industry they have to be able to afford to buy new boats and soon.”