By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter 

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

A VIOLENT storm tore across eastern New Providence on Friday night, toppling food trailers, ripping roofs, and plunging whole communities into darkness.

The storm struck shortly after 8.30pm, intensifying within minutes with pounding rain, thunder and lightning. By 9pm skies had cleared, leaving behind overturned vehicles, shattered glass and stunned families. Power outages were reported across Joe Farrington Road, Fox Hill, Blair Estates, Eastern Road, Nassau East, Seabreeze and other areas, with downed poles and fallen trees blocking major routes.

Many residents believed the storm was a tornado at first, but the Department of Meteorology later confirmed the event was a microburst—a sudden downward rush of wind from a thunderstorm that can cause tornado-like damage but produces straight-line winds rather than rotation. 

Anthony Bethel, who operates Gold Touch bar, said his food trailer was flipped like a toy while his wife narrowly escaped injury. “I started screaming for my wife because I said no one could make it,” he said. She had been sheltering in a van that overturned before managing to reach the building for safety.

His wife, Sheena, said she prayed as the trailer rolled several times, shattering glass and tearing up trees around her. Though the trailer and its contents were destroyed, she said she was grateful to be alive. “Material things can always be replaced. My life cannot,” she said.

Retired businesswoman Beryl Pugh, who owns the property, said the blow was devastating after years of struggling to maintain it. Her nearby home was also damaged. “I cannot even afford to hire someone to move the trash,” she said, describing the burden of property taxes and medical bills even before Friday’s disaster.

Resident Errol Ferguson said his roof partially collapsed while his wife grabbed their baby and rushed to the bathroom. “Watching the plywood and everything fly off, watching the sheetrock drop down and cave in on me and my family, I honestly thought it was not going to end,” he said. He credited neighbours and police colleagues for helping to cover the roof afterwards.

Betty “Sheba” Dames, a shop owner in the area for more than 20 years, said the winds ripped shingles and plywood from her roof and sent water gushing into her store. A sheet of plywood smashed her car windshield. “Thank God nobody got hurt,” she said.

Bahamas Power and Light and the Bahamas Grid Company deployed crews overnight to clear debris and restore service.

Meteorologists said radar showed no rotational signature consistent with a tornado. Instead, conditions pointed to a microburst, which can produce winds up to 100 miles per hour, comparable to an EF-1 tornado.

Elizabeth MP JoBeth Coleby-Davis called the destruction across her constituency “really major”, drawing comparisons to the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. She pledged to help residents access building materials and said the government’s energy committee would meet to review the storm’s impact.

Seabreeze MP Leslia Miller-Brice also toured her constituency on Saturday, promising support for families hit hardest.

Residents said the storm lasted less than half an hour but caused devastation unlike anything they had seen before.

“We all have to get ourselves together,” Mr Bethel said. “We could have been gone, but God had a way. We have to move forward.”

At the time of going to press, BPL was still in the process of restoring power to some areas in the eastern part of New Providence.