FACILITY and ACCOMMODATIONS UPDATES (ALL reliable information will be posted here, with news pertaining to Go-abacos sponsors hot-linked to their respective Go-abacos pages):

Brendal's Dive Shop (from Mary Stevens): 10-15-99: The new dive shop sustained minor damage and is open for business (even though the phones still don't work dependably). Brendal also has been to his dive sites and The Caverns Tarpon Dive is fine. All three boats also weathered the storm with no major damage.

Roberts Cottages Dock and Apartments 9-23-99: two cottages up and open for business.  Dock cottage should be back on line in a month or so. Dock is still standing but will probably need new electrical.  Apartments are fine and open for business.

Green Turtle Club, Resort and Marina 9-26-99: Significant damage suffered to restaurant, docks and rooms. Due to thesedamages, the Green Turtle Club will be temporarily closed for repairs. Reconstruction efforts are presently underway and we hope to re-open by mid-December. The Club would like to thank all our friends for their support and offers of assistance. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Two long time Green Turtle Club employees, Pat McIntosh, 18 years, and Louise McIntosh, 20 years, have lost their homes in Fox Town. Neither have insurance or the funds to rebuild. Louise's mother also lost her home in Foxtown. A relief fund has been set up to assist these fine ladies. Please make checks out to Maureen Anstey and mail to The Louise & Pat Relief Fund, C/O Maureen Anstey, 712 SE 5th Court, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33301.

Island Property Management 9-29-99: Limiteddamage to all vacation rentals except one. Expect to be reopen for almost all rentals within the next two weeks (by 2nd week in October).

Bluff House Resort 10-5-99: Some of the buildings, furnishings and carpets etc were damaged, but repairs and the ordering of materials and new replacement furnishings etc are already well underway. The hotel will reopen on the 19th November 1999.

Ocean Blue Properties (12 rentals) 10-1-99: all properties listed except for the following are ready today for rental:

Rental L: Sustained wind and water damage. Should be ready for rental Christmas.

Rental M: Sustained roof; dock and porch damage. Materials already on order and owners working hard to restore. Should be ready by Thanksgiving.

The town of New Plymouth is open on a normal basis. Dock at ferry dock landing on Mainland functioning, although with a lot less dock. Cable TV is working. Phone service at Ocean Blue rentals operating in 90 percent of the rentals. Beach at Gillam Bay in excellent condition. All roads are open. Some trees down but majority standing on Gillam Bay properties. Leaves (of course) missing. Bicycle and golf cart rentals open for business. Freight already arriving by mail boat and M.V. Marguerita. Shops have stock up to normal.

Abaco Yacht Services 9-30-99:

As of Tuesday all of the boats that were blown over at the Abaco Yacht Services yard were stood upright again. Most of the downed trees have been cut up and removed, and the yard has been cleaned up. We have had a flood of insurance adjusters and marine surveyors coming to assess damages. Four or five of the boats are write-offs. While damage on a couple of them doesn't look too bad from the outside, on closer inspection it is found that bulkheads have torn away, masts and rigging are bent or broken, interior cabinetry and structural stringers are broken, internal fuel and water tanks have ruptured, and engines and generators have been torn away from their mounts.

While all of this is quite fixable, it will cost much more than the insured value of the boat, so the insurers are writing them off and taking bids for salvage. There is a barge coming over in a couple of weeks to take some of the repairable boats back to Florida where there are better facilities.

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT REPORTS: 1 October 1999: Please note that these reports have been provided to The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism directly by the manager and/or owner of each hotel or resort. In every instance the information has been provided in writing by the manager attesting to the status of his/her property. Where no such written documentation has been provided the status is recorded as "information pending". Updates are made on the basis of further written documentation combined with personal visit to the property to verify this information. Parts of northern and southern Abaco sustained extreme damage. The airports at Treasure Cay and Marsh harbour are open. Power is available in some locations and telephone service has been restored in a limited number of locations.

Bluff House Club, Green Turtle Cay
The hotel sustained superficial damage and is scheduled to reopen by the end of November 1999.

Coco Bay Cottages, Green Turtle Cay
The hotel sustained little damage and will reopen as scheduled on October 23rd, 1999.

Green Turtle Club and Marina, Green Turtle Cay
The hotel restaurant, offices and docks were severely damaged and is now closed but expects to reopen by December 25th, 1999.

Linton's Beach and Harbour Cottages, Green Turtle Cay
The Linton's Beach Cottages sustained minimal damage and will reopen as scheduled on October 1st, 1999. All facilities are available to guests.

New Plymouth Club and Inn, Green Turtle Cay
The New Plymouth Club and Inn sustained minimal damage and will reopen as scheduled on October 1st, 1999. All facilities are available to guests.

Tree Houses, Green Turtle Cay
The Tree Houses are temporarily closed until further notice.

STORM DAMAGE, RELIEF AND REBUILDING REPORTS:

Sun, 19 Sep 1999 20:37:25 -0400
Scott and Sue Roberts - Green Turtle Cay
Abaco Yacht Services and Roberts Cottages

No, Floyd did not blow us away as reported!

We are happy to report that we are in very good shape here in Green Turtle Cay!  Winds were reliably clocked in excess of 175-200 miles per hour and water was rising, but thankfully no lives have been lost and no one was injured!

We emerged from our bunker to find lots of trees down and most vegetation in an altered state.  Luckily our home was spared - shingle damage - lost gutters and blasted yards but not as bad as expected.  It is always nice to see your home still standing where you left it!  The village of New Plymouth did pretty well.  Unfortunately we had some major water damage in the area of the basketball court, but all are drying out and getting on with it!

Electricity and telephones in town and most of Black Sound are functioning. A great big thank you to our BEC (Bahama Electric Corporation) boys - Floyd Johnson, Vincent Cooper and Joel Reckley along with lots of help from Roddy Sawyer and Randy Sawyer.  Hoping to have a party for them later!  They are still hard at work trying to get White Sound some power.

We lost one house on Gilliam Bay - our heartfelt regrets go out to good friends Annie and Manuel. Also lost Dr. Stella's roof in Black Sound. Abaco Yacht Services unfortunately had some boats down, but everyone is hard at work cleaning up and AYS open for business.

We are quite concerned for resorts Bluff House and Green Turtle Club. Lots of damage to buildings and docks. Green Turtle Club has already flown in 3000 pounds of roofing material, and many people appear to be hard at work beginning what is sure to be a rather lengthy repair process. According to Jim Nawn (one of the Club's owners), the Club is targeting the Christmas/New Years period for its opening date. Clean-up is well under way and repairs will not be far behind once we receive our building supplies.  All business's should have such wonderful employees as these two establishments.

We want to say a special thank you to Earl Russell, Arnie Visnick (Vessel "Jet Lag") and Marty on Vessel "Another Woman" for being ham radio operaters extrordinaire! They were our only source of outside communication and worked tirelessly getting calls in and out to friends and family.

I'm happy to report most of the vacation rental houses did very well and will be ready for business shortly.

However, we did have two vessels go down in Black Sound. Our sympathies to Rob and Judy on Conch Pearl who have been wonderful friends and neighbours. There are a number of vessels on dry land in White Sound. Fortunately, a couple of salvage companies are on their way to help them.

Also a big thank you to Green Turtle Ferry for keeping their service going even though there was no dock over at Treasure Cay. Special thanks to local government for organizing the town clean-up and getting us help from Central Government in Nassau.

All in all we are in very good shape here in paradise! We all help each other and give freely to those who need it.

We are much more concerned about our citizens on the mainland than we are about Green Turtle Cay. They have suffered severe devastation and we hope all the relief efforts will be concentrated on them.

Thanks to all the wonderful friends from Florida and points beyond who have come to our aid. Green Turtle Cay is a little bruised but nothing is broken that can't be fixed!