By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Flooding and a blown fuse yesterday forced some Bahamian businesses to halt operations for the day in the wake of Tropical Storm Imelda’s passage.

Following the all-clear provided to New Providence, the Berry Islands, Andros, Exuma, Cat Island, San Salvador and Rum Cay, some companies were unable to re-open as planned due to the storm’s lingering after-effects.

While flooding was not an issue for Taste Dee Food, the takeaway suffered a blown fuse resulting in a partial loss of electricity supply to the building. Deandre Archer, its proprietor, was advised by Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) to hire an electrician to assess the situation.

“Flooding is an issue when it rains, but as soon as the rain subsides, everything goes north, like more towards Dowdeswell Street. So it clears up pretty quickly. I went there like around, say, 6am this morning, and there was a little water settled right in the front of the door, but it wasn’t no major flooding,” Ms Archer said.

“Flooding isn’t an issue with me. Only when it’s raining, the water rises, but as soon as the rain subsides, the water goes away. So I don’t have that issue with flooding coming into the building or anything. It was storm-related, because of the breeze, the wind.

“They had advised me to get an electrician to deal with that, because there’s no power outage in the area. The storm would have caused it, but they don’t change a fuse for you. So they told me to get somebody to look at it, find out what the problem really is, because on their end, everything is clear. I do have electricity. It’s partial, like I go inside, the lights are on, but I’m not getting full power to the building.”

Ms Archer is hoping to resume operations today, adding that it was unsafe for her to do so yesterday. “I’m dealing with that as soon as possible because I need to be up and running,” she said. “Like I said, I did go to work this morning. I was planning on opening, but after I went into the building, and I noticed that I’m not getting enough power, like the fridge was on, the freezer was off, the light would come on partially, certain parts of the front area weren’t on. And the back of the kitchen was on, but it was partly on. So I didn’t think that was safe for me to open up until I got it checked out.”

The Fitness Connection’s Blake Road location remained closed yesterday as the streets leading to the venue experienced flooding. Demeko Nesbitt, its founder, said Monday is great day for revenue and having to close for a day affects the bottom line. He did, however, host an online sale to make up for revenue lost with the store’s temporary closure.

“We had planned to open, and a lot of roads leading up to the plaza were OK, but as you approach the plaza, it’s a lot of flooding,” Mr Nesbitt said. “That plaza itself, the parking lot has about, say, three to four inches of water in it, so it’s going to deter people from coming there.

“Even if you can access it to get to open, a lot of people won’t drive down the roads leading to it. And, of course, when they get on to Blake Road by the circle is like a big pool there, where a lot of people just turn around.

“So it doesn’t make sense for us to open even though we were scheduled to. I went there earlier and stayed there for about 45 minutes. I didn’t see anybody come in the parking lot. I think one car went to the back,” Mr Nesbitt said.

“Monday is a busier day for us. A lot of people in the gym, starting the gym, busy day for that. And it’s just a matter of doing a pivot. So we’re doing an online sale to help still get some revenue. And the persons who can make it to work, we still let them come in if they can, but I don’t want anybody to risk damaging their vehicles.

“So right now, our Seagrapes store is open but at the Blake Road store, we haven’t been able to get anybody who can make it there to stay open, and I’m not sure it makes sense to just have someone there if traffic’s not there.”

Cheryl Cambridge, owner of Cheryl’s Bahamas Taxi & Tours, whose operations continued throughout the storm, noted the importance of businesses having a ‘plan B’. She recalled the COVID-19 pandemic and alternative methods that had to be used during that period. She said she allowed her staff to work from home on Sunday while sending one of her taller vehicles to transport employees to work yesterday.

“My girls took the laptop home. They worked from home yesterday, so my operation never stopped. They work from home and all their cars underwater, so I sent one of my higher busses to pick up my three girls for the office today,” she said.

“You got to have a plan B, you know, because during COVID, the same thing - we work from home. The business don’t stop. People are still booking. So you have to have mechanisms in place. There’s modern technology. So you got to have it in place that the operation don’t stop.

“My phone still ringing. So I had my office cell phone, which I had that for over 30 years. I take that to the office 8am in the morning and pick it up 6pm in the evening. So I had that at home with me. So the office was literally not really closed. It was closed physically, but still we were mobile and from home, with modern technology, answering e-mail from home, answering the phone from home.”