The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Exuma businesses yesterday said they are struggling with the loss of commerce and impact from "crazy" flooding that has cut-off the northern part of the island although airlift has not been affected.

Kim Thompson, owner of Thompson’s Car Rental, told Tribune Business it has not been renting vehicles because some roads are impassable. She added that “people won’t respect your vehicle” and will drive through the flood waters without regard.

"We’re open right now because some of the roads are passable, but we’re still telling people to be careful with the parts of the roads that are flooded. I just know some people will attempt to drive through the roads that are flooded," she added.

Ms Thompson normally rents 120 cars on a daily basis and gets most of her business from tourists. “It’s not true that the airport is down. The airport was never closed. We were getting flights every day,” Ms Thompson said.

“I heard people reporting that flights had stopped, but I worked all day on Sunday and I know we had Silver Airways twice, we got American Airlines twice. We had Bahamasair morning and evening, and we also had Western Air in the morning and the evening. So the airport being closed was not true.”

Alfred Williams, general manager of Eva’s Place, said it is “crazy” in Exuma right now but the business opened yesterday morning. Unsure how long the company will remain open because the rain had started again, he said: “Some streets are still flooded and people can’t get past, and they can’t get to work and people just can’t get out. This may go on like this for the rest of the day.

“I live in Farmer’s Hill and they had to cut the trench out from the pond to the sea because it was overflooded so they could run the water off into the canal under the Farmer’s Hill bridge straight out to the ocean, or else we would have been stuck for days on that side.”

The north-western part of Exuma, from Sandals Emerald Bay resort heading north, suffered the most from the weekend flooding but there was little structural damage aside from that caused by the water. “I just made it out to come to work from home just to check things out, and it’s still flooded through the corners. People’s homes and cars are still under water. The water is still across the road. If you are in big dump truck you can get by, but if you are in car then no,” Mr Williams added.

Marco Forbes, owner of Houseman on the Bay, just four miles south of Sandals Emerald Bay, said his restaurant had not been impacted at all. “There were certain areas that had been impacted like up to Farmer’s Hill and Sandals, where they had to run some of the water off into a canal from the lake into the bay, so that helped out a lot with Farmer’s Hill," he said.

"There are certain areas where there is low lying water where it isn’t so bad, but I would say it is more of the north and north-west areas that were impacted the most, like Rolleville was flooded pretty badly. Also, it's where you were seeing cars underwater. But our restaurant wasn’t affected at all because we sit up pretty high, so we weren’t affected at all.”

Tourist flows from Sandals to Houseman may be affected because of the flooded roads. Mr Forbes added: “I’m not expecting too many people coming in from the nothern part of the island at all because it was pretty flooded up there.”