FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) – After two days of roaring winds and severe flooding, Bahamians emerged under drizzly skies Sunday to witness the destruction left by hurricane Frances – walls sheared from homes, roofs collapsed, yards littered with boats, mangled trees and TV sets.
The hurricane left at least two dead and one missing, and officials said they feared the death toll could rise as they surveyed the damage. The northern island of Grand Bahama appeared particularly hard-hit, with several neighbourhoods flooded, fallen trees blocking many roads and snapped power lines lying amid debris.
Violent winds tore open a wall at Gary Roberts’ home, where waters rushed in shoulder-deep, ruining furniture and mattresses.
“At least we’re alive. The contents and everything can be brought back,” said Roberts, a 22-year-old who took shelter elsewhere during the storm with relatives. His wife, Ronique Roberts, said a car had floated across their yard during the hurricane, which stalled over Grand Bahama Island and caused widespread damage Saturday.
It remained unclear how many homes were flooded in the Bahamas, but officials said they estimated scores – and perhaps hundreds – of homes were damaged on Grand Bahama Island alone.
One man was found floating face-down Saturday in a metre of water on the western end of Grand Bahama, police Supt. Basil Rahming said. Police believe the man had been trying to swim to safety from his flooded yard. Another man was electrocuted while trying to fill a generator with diesel as the storm raged through the capital of Nassau on Friday.
Police said they feared a third man in his 80s was likely killed in his wooden house when it collapsed Saturday near the western tip of Grand Bahama. His body had yet to be found.
At least five people on the island sustained minor injuries, from a toddler whose face was cut by a piece of flying glass to a man who hurt himself trying to cut a tree in his yard during the storm, said Sharon Williams, the administrator of Rand Memorial Hospital.
On Saturday, heavy winds shattered plate glass windows at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Freeport, including lobby windows stretching from floor to ceiling.
Hooneymooner Curt Crites, 29, of Olympia, Washington, took cover with his wife in a hallway on the hotel’s ninth floor after the windows in their room shattered.
“You’re thinking about what to do to keep yourself from dying,” Crites said.
Power remained out in spots across the Bahamas, including Freeport, the Bahamas’ second largest commercial centre, where the brunt of the slow-moving hurricane struck Saturday with sustained winds of up to 165 kilometres per hour.
Ian James, AP
