The Tribune

By SAMORA J ST ROSE

Tribune Sports Editor

sstrose@tribunemedia.net

LONG TIME resident of Lyford Cay Kim Aranha remembers Betsy in 1965 as a category 4 hurricane striking the Bahamas – but with nothing like the “relentless" force that Matthew brought on Thursday with 140mph winds that battered New Providence.

“I was nine years old when we had Hurricane Betsy. I don’t remember it being as relentless as this. I don’t think that I have ever been in a hurricane as strong as this, this is the strongest. And the gusts are really impressive,” said Mrs Aranha, who told The Tribune that she and her husband, Paul, had “virtually lost every tree” in their beloved garden and an “awful” lot of tiles were blown off their roof at their western New Providence home.

“We got the worst of the worst for about two hours or more,” she said. The winds have been “very, very strong”. “The winds have been very amazing. At one point, it was unbelievable. We have lost an awful lot of roof tiles and a lot of trees are down,” she said.

Mrs Aranha said that she has “grown up” in hurricanes over the years but has never seen anything like Matthew - the strongest hurricane to threaten the US Atlantic coast in more than a decade - since category 4 Hurricane Betsy, an intense and destructive tropical cyclone that brought widespread damage to areas of Florida and the central United States Gulf Coast in September, 1965.

Matthew brought raging winds and driving rain as it slammed the nation’s chain of islands, arriving in the southern islands early on Wednesday and churning north west through the archipelago and wreaking devastation on New Providence.

Mrs Aranha, the president of the Bahamas Humane Society (BHS), said the howling winds and rain began in Lyford Cay around 8am on Thursday but “it was horrible” around noon. “I would say it (the winds) has lessened a little bit,” she told The Tribune on Thursday afternoon.

She reported that the animals and people are “all fine” and in safe-keeping at the BHS shelter in Chippingham. “I just hope that no one was stupid enough to leave their dog tied up,” she added.

She said they have already gotten in touch with world organisations, sending reports every few hours, in preparation for the unknown in the storm’s aftermath. “We have no idea what awaits us at the end of this storm,” she said.

On the bright side, up to Thursday afternoon, flooding has not been an issue in Lyford Cay.

“No, there is no flooding at the moment, just relentless wind. We have had very little rain in the picture of what I’ve been hearing,” she said, revealing that they were without running water since 9am on Thursday.

She said they have been using the water from their swimming pool to flush the toilets.

“I am told that all the foreigners with vacation homes went away but I don’t think any of the Bahamians did. Certainly, so far, there has been no need to evacuate,” she said. “You wouldn’t want to go out now, it’s still very strong. We are on generator. We have lost Internet, we don’t have any water and we don’t have a land (telephone) line.”

An increasing number of hurricane forecast computer models are showing the storm track making a “loop”, projecting the storm’s possible turn back towards and across the Bahamas from the east a second time.

“Can you imagine? I was looking at that just a while ago. Dear Christ, if it does that, what are we going to do? There are two or three more computer models that are bringing it back.”

In October, 1954, Category 4 Hurricane Hazel took a similar passage to Matthew through the Caribbean. It was reportedly the deadliest and most costly hurricane of the Atlantic season, killing at least 400 people in Haiti before striking the US near the border between North and South Carolina. As a result of the high death toll and damage caused by Hazel, its name was retired from use for North Atlantic hurricanes.