Slightly more than one week after Hurricane Irene slammed The Bahamas leaving residents on several islands without power, telephone or water, BTC announced today that full landline and cellular phone services were restored to North Eleuthera, Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.
Most cellular service was restored by Saturday, September 3, said Marlon Johnson, BTC vice president of sales and marketing, and landline service by late Monday, the 5th.
“North Eleuthera and Harbour Island were hit particularly hard because all their utilities were out,” said Johnson. “We sent in a recovery team that worked diligently to get them back up and running just as they are doing throughout The Bahamas and we hope to have good news for other islands throughout the archipelago over the next few days. Our biggest challenge is going to continue to be Cat Island as our fixed line service is dependent upon nearly 50 utility poles which BEC is working to replace at this time.”
According to Kenneth Strachan, a security guard at Romora Bay on Harbour Island and the man credited with helping to capture Colton Harris-Moore, known as the Barefoot Bandit last July as he fled the marina after a three-nation search, residents pitched in to assist.
“Everybody got together to help,” said Strachan. “Wherever the BTC men were up in the trucks up top, people were on the ground cutting down the trees and getting then out of the way, clearing the way for BTC to attach the wires. It was a real community effort.”
Harbour Island water taxi owner Juan Sawyer agreed.
“BTC was great. We saw their guys working hard all day and all night,” he said. “And it was essential to have the cell service back up, not so much for the regular water taxi service but for the private homes because they had to call on us to pull out the fallen trees and other debris the storm had left. So I’m very grateful to BTC and so are all the (water) taxis and the residents who needed help cleaning up.”
“We are thankful to have cellular phone capability as well as land lines restored,” said a spokesperson for Romora Bay Resort & Marina which, like many resorts on the island, is closed at this time of year. “The linesman on Harbour Island has worked diligently since the storm passed restoring on island phone functionalities.”
Another resident in North Eleuthera said water had just come on today and they were grateful for phone and water while they waited for power to be restored.
Diane Phillips & Associates
