Article posted with permission of the Sun-Sentinel Company and South Florida Interactive, Inc., per Bob Rountree, News Editor, Sun-Sentinel.com

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Floyd unleashed its rage on Bahamas
BY E.A. TORRIERO Web-posted: 10:57 p.m. Sep. 15, 1999

MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas -- The howling winds of Hurricane Floyd were barreling down Prophesy Lane when Robert Young witnessed the surging seas lift a fishing trawler into the air and plop it down sideways outside his front door.

"The rain was coming down in buckets and the ocean was just pounding at my house," Young said Wednesday afternoon, after Floyd's eye passed over this northern Bahamian hamlet.

"Then all of a sudden there was a boat in my yard," said Floyd, who lives a stone's throw from the beach. "I thought it was coming through the side of the house. Only the grace of God stopped it."

Virtually cut off from the outside world by the ferocious storm, the harbors and keys of Abaco were in terrible shape on Wednesday and with no way to get immediate help.

Dozens of houses, docks, boats, marinas, hotels, and restaurants were bashed by Floyd as it made its way over the northern Bahamas late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

[Photo - Elbow Cay - above courtesy Sun-Sentinel]

It left extensive flooding, numerous holes in roofs, many signs strewn in the streets, and widespread beach and marsh erosion. Boats were tossed onto the shore.

Some of the familiar landmarks to South Florida boaters -- like the Conch Inn here and the Abaco Inn on the ocean -- were hit hard by storm surges and pummeling gusts.

Remarkably -- considering that Floyd's winds were in excess of 150 mph -- the numbers of injuries and casualties appeared to be low, government officials said. One death on Grand Bahama Island was attributed to the storm, apparently the only fatality caused by Floyd's three-day march through the 700 islands of the Bahamas.

Media crews arriving by planes and helicopter here at midday -- the first outsiders to reach the Abacos after the storm -- found residents shell-shocked. The damage is scattered, not as concentrated or eye-popping as left by other recent Atlantic hurricanes that bashed the Caribbean. And so far, Floyd has not been nearly as deadly as Hurricane Mitch, which claimed more than 10,000 lives in Central America last year and was one of the deadliest storms in history.

"But for an island where people have nothing, no insurance, no savings to repair their property, this is devastating," said Silbert Mills, top administrator for Abaco, home to more than 13,000 mostly poor residents. "People have no way to rebuild their lives, and this will be a long hard process."

Mills, a radio weatherman, said residents were warned for hours before the storm to take cover. But even he -- a veteran forecaster -- was stunned by Floyd's fury.

"We took no chances, but it was like a continuous bombardment," he said. "The rains and winds -- you cannot describe them. It was horrible."

"It sounded like thunder as they (tanker trailers) just rolled down the street like little toys," said Thomas Adderley, a water company worker who rode out the storm at his office. "Then the eye came over and we came out for a look. It was quiet for a while, but we could already tell that things were bad. Then we caught the back of the storm and we continued to get smacked."

From the air, Floyd's devastating handiwork is visible everywhere on dozens of finger-like keys that make up the Abacos.

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In Hopetown, which sits at the ocean's edge, some houses were completely destroyed and looked as if they had been blown up. Further south in Crossing Rocks, several homes were submerged. Waves rolled lazily over roofs that peeked out from the emerald waters.

"Please tell everyone that people in south Abaco are safe, but the destruction is pretty bad," Robert Sweeting, the Bahamian parliament member representing the area, told reporters at the Marsh Harbor airport -- some 30 miles to the north -- after flying over his district.

"We have residents who have family in Freeport and in Florida who have no way of contacting their loved ones," he said. "Tell everyone we are safe, but helpless."

The first high-ranking government officials from Nassau arrived near dusk on Wednesday to survey the destruction at Marsh Harbor, a boating way station for Floridians about 180 miles east of Fort Lauderdale.

They found the airport runways partially submerged in water. A few furious residents waited to scream at them about what they say is a slow response by their elected officials.

"We have no power, no food, no shelter, no telephones and our houses are ruined," said one resident who asked not to be named because he works for the government and is afraid he would lose his job. "And the Bahamian government has done nothing for us, not even to show up. It makes us sick."

Mills, the highest-ranking local government official here, said the Bahamas' largest islands were hit by Floyd, catching the poor nation off guard and with little means to rebound.

"We lack the resources to respond to this," he said. "Remember: The Bahamas is composed of many tiny islands and archipelagoes. How do we reach all these people?"

Response time was made even worse because Nassau, the Bahamian capital on New Providence Island about 100 miles to the south, was struck by Floyd's westerly winds on Tuesday as the storm wove toward Abaco. Downed power and phone lines made communication from there difficult.

"We have no good way to communicate with them and they have no way to communicate with us," Mills said. "Basically we are cut off from everyone."

The airwaves of local radio stations, which broadcast from nearby Grand Bahama Island, were full of pleas from locals for news from their stranded neighbors.

"Do we know anything from Abaco?" one resident of Freeport asked a radio announcer.

"We can't say for sure," the announcer said. "But we hear it is bad."

Listening to the same station on his truck on Abaco, water worker Adderley shook his head.

"They are concerned, but we can't get any word to them," he said. "We know people are worried about us. But what can we do?"

There were no predictions when cleanup would begin here or when substantial help would arrive.

Mill said he could only warn the people of the Southeastern United States to be wary of Floyd as it approaches the Carolinas today.

"Pack up and leave and get out of the way," he advised. "First, take one last look around because after Floyd comes and goes, things will never be the same again. We know. Believe us: We know."

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Article posted with permission of the Sun-Sentinel Company and South Florida Interactive, Inc., per Bob Rountree, News Editor, Sun-Sentinel.com Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc.