By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president yesterday branded Tropical Storm Imelda as “truly a non-event” that created “very little drama” for the country’s largest industry.

Jackson Weech, also general manager for operations at Atlantis, told Tribune Business that he and the BHTA had received no reports of any Bahamas-based resort sustaining physical damages to their properties as a result of the storm’s passage. 

“Generally, straight across the archipelago, we fared rather well,” he said. “We have no reports of any physical damage being sustained at any of the resorts. Equally as important, when there were any guests unable to get out of our resorts, and there were one or two, they were fed and taken care of.

“The airport [Lynden Pindling International Airport] re-opened at 10am this morning and most of those visitors made their way out. Thankfully, it turned out to be an event with very little drama. We’re pleased with the way it turned out: Truly a non-event.”

Mr Weech was echoed by Robert Sands, his immediate past predecessor as BHTA president and also Baha Mar’s senior vice-president for external and government affairs, who told this newspaper: “We’re still gathering information. A number of persons have not really reported in real numbers to work.

“To the best of my knowledge other than cancellations due to airport closures, and we obviously have some of that, but the airport only closed for approximately 24 hours and reopened at 10am today [yesterday]. We’re also at the point where the industry has its lowest occupancies for the year, so any impact will be minimal.”

Many Family Island resorts also shutdown during what is traditionally the slowest part of the tourism season, not re-opening until end-October or early November. “I’m not aware, based on what we have so far, that there’s been any impact in terms of damage to properties elsewhere. We’ve fared fairly well,” Mr Sands said.

“Many surrounding areas have significant flooding so that impacts access and getting to work. We also see a delay in shipping to The Bahamas, having been closed for 24 hours and getting back to normal tomorrow [today].

“My general observation so far, and from what I’ve been able to glean so far, is there’s been a very minimal negative impact. I think we’ve been fortunate so far.” 

Emanuel Alexiou, president of the Bahama Out Islands Promotion Board and proprietor of the Abaco Beach Resort, told Tribune Business: “I was a little worried because it [the storm] was slow moving through Nassau and the barometric pressure was dropping when it got past Nassau.

“The evening and night were fine. At 9.30am to 10am we got the worst wind and rain, when the centre was not quite on us. The weather gradually got better and better, and the sun peaked through. The wind was coming from the west. I can also see white caps. It’s more a flooding exercise than anything else. I don’t think there’s a lot of damage.”

Given that The Bahamas is in the slowest point of its tourism season, Mr Alexiou said the number of guests trapped by the storm was offset by those who could not arrive in this nation as scheduled. Nassau Cruise Port, meanwhile, said it had only lost one cruise ship call to Imelda.

It confirmed that the Margaritaville at Sea rescheduled to arrive on Saturday ahead of the storm, and the downtown Nassau facility is now expecting a total of 21 ships to visit between Monday and Friday this week. It yesterday received Carnival Freedom, Disney Magic and MSC Seascape bringing a collective 9,948 visitors to the capital.

Operations at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) also resumed. The Nassau Airport Development (NAD), the airport’s operator, said LPIA sustained “minimal to no damage” as a result of the storm and the airport was cleared for operation after comprehensive safety inspections.

“Safety assessments at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) have been completed following the passage of Tropical Storm Imelda. All airport infrastructure, including runways, taxiways, terminal facilities and critical systems, has been cleared for use. The airport sustained minimal to no damage during the storm and flights are expected to resume at 10am today,” said NAD.

“All airport stakeholders, including Air Traffic Services, Bahamas Customs, Bahamas Immigration, the Airport Authority, US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) and airline partners, are prepared to restart operations.”

Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) said electricity was restored to the majority of customers across the north-west and central Bahamas within 24 hours of the storm’s impact. Anthony Christie, its chief operating officer, said the utility’s newly-launched digital reporting system played a key role in accelerating restoration efforts

“Hundreds of Bahamians utilised the newly-launched BPL service hub, submitting location-tagged reports and photos of outages and damaged infrastructure. This real time information allowed BPL to deploy teams more efficiently, reduce response times and accelerate restoration across affected communities,” he said.

BPL confirmed full power restoration to Bimini, Great Harbour Cay and Bullocks Harbour, Cat Island and Long Island. In Abaco, 50 percent of affected customers were restored, with assessments ongoing for the remaining areas.

In Eleuthera, supply was restored from Hatchet Bay to Bannerman Town, with smaller pockets in Tarpum Bay, Governor’s Harbour and Rock Sound still being addressed. In North Eleuthera, BPL crews were actively working on the Gregory Town feeder, which has experienced intermittent trips.

Multiple outages were also reported in New Providence, including Adelaide, Coral Harbour, Nassau Village, Wulff Road and Paradise Island. BPL said nearly all communities have now been re-energised, with remaining isolated cases under active resolution.