Copyright thenassauguardian
Hundreds of residents from the southeast Bahamas landed in New Providence on Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Melissa, which is expected to impact the central and southern Bahamas later today. Melissa barreled into Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, dealing 185 mile per hour winds, as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the nation. Forecasters first predicted that Crooked Island and Acklins would bear the brunt of the storm, however, after the storm shifted, forecasters said Melissa is now projected to impact Ragged Island, Long Island, Rum Cay, and San Salvador. Novelet Turnquest, a life-long Inagua resident, and part of the first group of evacuees, said she briskly left Nassau on Monday evening to return to Inagua to safeguard her home and other belongings before the storm makes landfall in The Bahamas. “I came out of Nassau yesterday, so I had to go home,” Turnquest said at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday. “I couldn’t leave nobody to do that for me because I have a lot of things to secure, so I had to fly in yesterday and catch another flight out. It was like five of us. “You can’t predict what a hurricane could do, so it’s best to be safe than sorry.” Jonathan Rose, a resident of Acklins who left the island with his girlfriend and two children, said though it feels good to be safe in New Providence, he worries about what he and his family will meet when they return home. “I live in a low-lying area, so if it does come to that, a category four, my house will be under water,” Rose said. “I have a fear that my roof might be gone, and my car might be damaged.” Residents from Acklins and Inagua arrived in the capital yesterday morning, and residents from Crooked Island, Mayaguana and Ragged Island arrived in the evening. Disgruntled Crooked Islanders were vocal about a lapse in communication from officials, and an unclear flight schedule, claiming that they were at the airport waiting as early as 6 a.m. Managing Director of the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Authority Aarone Sargent addressed concerns from residents, stressing that the authority is doing all it can. “As with any operation of this scale, we have encountered logistical challenges,” Sargent said last night “Weather conditions in the southern islands have deteriorated more rapidly than expected due to the size and movement of the storm system. “In addition, some of the smaller airports, particularly in Acklins and Crooked Island, have shorter runways that can only accommodate smaller aircraft, and it has been a challenge locating planes within our partner network that can land on those shorter strips.” He added, “We understand the anxiety and urgency being felt by residents awaiting evacuation. “Please know that every available resource is being deployed, and every decision made is focused on your safety. This remains our single priority. We ask for the public’s continued patience and understanding as we work through the final stages of this historic evacuation effort.” Sargent said the Airport Authority suspended operations at all airports at 8 p.m. last night, except those required to facilitate evacuation flights. “This is the largest pre-event evacuation exercise in Bahamian history,” he said. “It is an extremely fluid and complex operation, but our teams are diligently working to get people to safety.” MICAL MP Basil McIntosh shared that he urged his constituents to get out before evacuation efforts were suspended. “It’s just a matter of them sitting down, [making them] understand what’s going on,” McIntosh said. Due to the shift of the storm, McIntosh said that he does not believe residents have much to worry about in terms of damaged infrastructure. He noted that shelter provisions for residents who chose to stay on Crooked Island are available. DRM Executive Chairman Alex Storr said almost all residents cooperated with the evacuation order. “As of yesterday, when we first announced the evacuation, we had about 1,400 residents sign up to evacuate, pretty much just about everybody’s coming up,” Storr said. He added, “We registered a number of flights this morning to go into the southern islands, MICAL and Ragged Island.” “What we’re doing is [for] some of the smaller islands, we use ferry planes to get them to Inagua, where the runway is much more substantial. “The larger jets go into Inagua then bring as many people up as we can.” He said, “As long as sunlight and weather permits, we will be flying people up.” When the storm passes, and an all-clear is given, Storr said officials will head down to conduct an assessment, and provisions will be made for residents to return home. At 8 p.m. last night, Melissa was a Category 3 storm with winds up to 125 miles per hour. Seven deaths were attributed to the storm in the Caribbean. Three people were killed in Jamaica, three in Haiti, and one in the Dominican Republic.
