The Tribune

By Denise Maycock

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

NEMA officials landed in Grand Bahama on Friday afternoon and went to a number of housing subdivisions in Freeport that sustained substantial flood damage and property loss in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

Powerful storm surge from the north shore flooded homes, and businesses as far as downtown Freeport, dumping and leaving a trail of debris everywhere.

The team visited six subdivisions, including Heritage, Hudson Estates, Back of Town, Sunset, Regency Park, and Hawksbill, where residents were busy cleaning out their homes of furniture and other possessions ruined in the flood.

Everywhere they went, furniture, household appliances and mattresses were piled up along the roadside in the front yards of every subdivision. Clothing and bed linens were strung out on fences and on the lawns in an effort to salvage whatever possessions they could.

Many residents, particularly those in Sunset and Hudson Estates, never expected that seaweed and debris some four miles from the pine forest would end up in their front yards.

The flood damage was substantial.

“Everything is lost,” said Sunset resident Lynn Knowles, who made out in just in time with her kids.

“I was here when the water came. When I looked through the window, the water was coming up (fast) and I got my kids, and as I hopped in my jeep the water was to the bumper, and almost to the hood,” she recalled of the ordeal.

She rushed to the nearest shelter.

“When I came back, this is what I found,” she said, pointing at the damaged interior walls that were washed away in the flood, exposing wood studs.

Ms Knowles said she has lived in her home for the past 12 years and has never had any flooding there.

“I am waiting for the Mortgage Corp and government to tell us what they are going to do because for the 12 years I have been here I have never had this; never any experience with this type of water. So, we need to find out if the government considered this a flood zone area,” she said.

Ms Knowles said all of their possessions were destroyed. “We have no clothes, no shoes – nothing,” she said.

Despite the loss, she said: “I just thank God for life, and that I was able to get my kids out in time. I had a neighbour that stayed in her ceiling; these are material things we could always rebuild,” she said.

The surge had dumped massive debris in the Sunset Subdivision.

As the team moved further west to Regency Park and Hawksbill, they saw much of the same scenario. Residents removing ruined furniture from their homes to the roadside, and salvaging whatever clothing and possessions they could.

The Grand Bahama International Airport opened for the first time since the storm, and many residents were out to collect relief brought to the island.

There was significant damage to many of the terminal buildings at the airport, which was also underwater. Planes parked on the tarmac ended up several hundred feet away outside the airport perimeter fencing, across the street.

The Western Air terminal building was completely gutted and sustained substantial damage. None of the airline’s aircraft had remained in Freeport during the storm.

A group of about 40 media representatives from various international news agencies also arrived on the island.