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Kerry Fountain, executive director of the Bahamas Out Islands Promotion Board, told Guardian Business that resort properties on the islands impacted by Hurricane Melissa were scheduled to reopen following their summer break from April to the end of August, but these reopenings will be delayed. Fountain also said that he has not received a full damage assessment report from any member properties on Long Island, Acklins, Cat Island and San Salvador, but he has been in touch with them, and they have only reported minor damage and a lack of utilities, but no structural damage from Melissa. Fountain added: “A lot of our hotels close around the end of August, beginning of September until the beginning of November and mid-November, and some of them were scheduled to open this week. Those openings are going to be delayed, if not for a week, perhaps two weeks. It depends on how quickly electricity, water, internet service and all those utilities are restored, but the time to recovery is short.” Fountain also said: “The damage assessment form was sent out to all of our members on Thursday afternoon. I made one or two preliminary calls, and right now, the hotels on islands that were impacted, their priority is really making sure that tree branches that fell on the properties... they’re trying to get all that taken care of, as opposed to appeasing me and filling out a damage assessment form. “We expect to get some written reports in the next day or two, right after they take care of priority items. But what we’re hearing in general is there have been a lot of downed trees, and with down trees, you have broken electrical wires, which means no electricity in some cases, no water, and in some cases intermittent internet service. But, what everybody is saying is, I’m alive, and it could have been worse, especially if you look at what happened to our brothers and sisters in Jamaica.” Hurricane Melissa ripped through the southeastern Bahamas last week, leaving significant damage to several of the islands. Family island resort properties are just now reopening from their summer break from April to the end of August, and are now ramping up for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, having completed whatever renovations they could during their few months of seasonal closure. Fountain said there was a great deal of support from airline partners to the affected Family Islands post-Melissa, adding that they were some of the first entities to donate support. “I’m not lambasting or criticizing the government, but these airline partners were some of the very same people that come to help us,” Fountain noted.
