National disaster officials in the Family Islands activated their precautionary measures on Tuesday as Hurricane Frances ploughed through the Atlantic, looming like an unfriendly, belligerent intruder that was poised to strike the Bahamas with its full force.
It appeared that police and defence force officers, island administrators and local government authorities were taking no chances with this powerful category four storm that had gained strength and was still growing.
On its present course, the islands of the southeast Bahamas were expected to be the first to feel the effects of the fierce weather phenomenon.
Forecasters on Tuesday issued a hurricane watch for Acklins, Ragged Island, Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Semana Cays and Inagua.
ﾓMayaguana is now ready,ﾒ said Officer in Charge of the island, Sergeant Lloyd Rolle. ﾓThe government building is [secure] and we are in the process of [securing the premises] for the less fortunate and the old folks in Betsy Bay, Pirates Well and Abrahamﾴs Bay.ﾒ
He said Tuesday was the last day to prepare for the hurricane.
According to Sergeant Rolle, those individuals intricately involved with the process and other residents on the island had made the decision to endure the storm together in a safe place.
ﾓEverybody is going to be safe,ﾒ he said, as others were scurrying around him to nail down all of the precautionary measures. ﾓWe decided that because we are few in number we are all going to go to shelters and ride out the storm together.ﾒ
There are around 300 people living on Mayaguana.
There was much of the same hurricane preparations going on in neighbouring Ragged Island, just a few miles away. In fact, those residents were scheduled to have attended a town meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
ﾓWe are preparing the local government buildings and clinic at this time,ﾒ Chief Councillor Granville Hepburn said.
ﾓA lot of people really stay in their own homes [during a hurricane], but we have the administration building as the hurricane shelter for Ragged Island and we have already secured that.ﾒ
Some 80 people call the island home.
Hurricane Frances brushed past several Caribbean islands on its way toward the Bahamas and Florida while, further north, tropical storm Gaston was moving out to sea after blazing a devastating trail in Virginia and South Carolina.
Inagua would be one of the first islands to feel the effects of Hurricane Frances. With that in mind, chief clerk in the administratorﾴs office, Judy Collie, said there is no time to take chances.
According to the projected track, tropical storm force conditions from Hurricane Frances will be felt in Inagua and other islands in the immediate vicinity by 8p.m. on Wednesday.
Officers from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force were on Tuesday helping to put storm shutters on government offices in Inagua.
ﾓHurricane shelters will be activated [Wednesday] morning and then we will wait and see what happens,ﾒ Mrs. Collie said. ﾓMost of the times we have been spared from hurricanes and so I donﾴt think the residents feel that sense of urgency.ﾒ
That is the same false sense of security that proved deadly for many people in South Florida who did not survive Hurricane Charley which lashed parts of South Florida and the Carolinas last month.
Residents in a mobile home community in Punta Gorda, Florida ﾠwere in the stormﾴs path. Many of them were killed as it cut a trail of death and destruction.
Other islands in the central Bahamas were under a hurricane alert on Tuesday afternoon, meaning that residents on the islands of Exuma and the cays, Long Island, Cat Island, San Salvador, Rum Cay, South Andros and South Eleuthera could possibly feel the effects of the hurricane within 60 hours.
Sustained winds from Frances held steady at 135 mph (215 kph) Tuesday as the storm sped at 15 mph (24 kph) to the west about 175 miles (282 kilometers) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A tropical storm warning covering St. Maarten, Anguilla, St. Eustatius, Saba and Guadeloupe was discontinued at 11 a.m., but remained in effect for Puerto Rico and the islands of Culebra and Vieques and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.
A tropical storm watch was in effect for St. Martin, St. Barthelemy and St. Croix was discontinued, but the Dominican Republic government issued a tropical storm warning for the country’s north coast from Punta Gorda west to Manzanillo Bay.
Forecasters said it had become unlikely that Frances would head to the south and the Florida Keys, instead noting computer models that were beginning to show more of a northerly or northwesterly turn, possibly missing Florida altogether.
Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
