The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bottled water suppliers yesterday estimated that sales had increased “at least” 50 per cent due to Hurricane Irma, one manufacturer saying: “It’s been crazy since Friday.”

Geoffrey Knowles, operations manager at Aquapure, told Tribune Business the company had seen an influx of customers looking to stock up on bottled water ahead of the storm. “People appear to be taking this storm very seriously,” he said.

“We have put on extra crews, mainly to deal with the Sunday crowd, but we expected the load on Monday. I would say that business has gone up at least 50 per cent compared to the norm. Our staff are being stretched at the moment, but they understand what’s going on. Lunch breaks have gotten shorter to facilitate the customers on the lines. We are keeping up with the demand. We expect that it will be like this until Thursday, maybe even Friday.”

Mr Knowles added: “We really can’t take another storm. Many people are still trying to recover from Hurricane Matthew.”

Charmon Jennings, Chelsea’s Choice’s operations manager, told Tribune Business it had seen a surge in customer traffic - a trend expected to continue for the remainder of the week.

“We have plenty traffic out here. There’s traffic backed up on Abundant Life Road,” he said. “The police came here to help us out with the traffic situation. They left at one point and came back again. It’s really busy and I’m thinking it’s going to be like this the rest of the week.”

Irma, now a Category 4 hurricane, is expected to remain a “dangerous major hurricane” through the week. Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis warned yesterday that Irma may pose a “direct and serious” threat to the Bahamas.

He called on residents to make preparations, saying most of the weather models indicate the Bahamas will be impacted in some way by Irma.