Hurricane Jeanne on the 25th September 2004

As if Grand Bahama and Abaco weren't already busy enough here comes messy Jeanne, a category 3 with winds sustained at 115 mph. Thankfully she kept going at a good clip of 14 mph so unlike Frances didn't stay until we all thought we would go mad.

The hardest hit were the Marsh Harbour area of Abaco and the East End of Grand Bahama.

Abaco still has little ability to communicate with reports of towers down in Cherokee Sound and elsewhere. Only reports heard beyond US TV coverage by reporter who was on island for storm have been mainly via satellite phones. The released films taken of Marsh Harbour were enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes with boats wash up on roadways and seawalls and nothing but toothpicks left of the marinas. The water ran freely down walkways and road, through buildings and homes or what was left of them. Flooding was severe. Lack of communicate with Abaco has created difficulties in reporting current conditions beyond lack of power and other services.

On Grand Bahama, East End and Sweetings Cay are still flooding as were Holmes Rock from earlier reports today. During the eye of the storm there were calls into ZNS radio reporting buildings demolished, roofs off and power lines down.

On the north side of Grand Bahama there was flooding perhaps not as severe as with Frances but certainly devasting on top of that which so recently occurred. Before Jeanne struck some residents of Queen's Cove who had diligently been working at restoring their properties were seen removing what contents they had remaining and going to higher ground. The airport took flooding again however flight service resumed today at least for Bahamas Air and Continental Connection. However, Bahamas Air announced that they were not servicing routes to Abaco or West Palm.

Many tourists turned to message boards to seek information on further delays in the resumption of hotel openings and the like. In that assessments are still being made a great deal of information has yet to be released. Overall there wasn't the volume of debris to clean up and being there had been so many replaced poles, less power lines succumbed to breaking or falling. There was evidence of the touch down of several tornados or waterspouts by way of poles in a row splintered.

There were no serious injuries or loss of life reported in the Bahamas from Jeanne. All in all residents did an ample job of preparing and where they had concerns sought shelter elsewhere to ride out the storm.

Of the announcements that have been made Our Lucaya has moved its opening date to 14 October - two weeks later than before. Pelican Bay is still opening on 1 October. Freeport Resort and Club did fine as well as many others. Being that not all have made official statements as of yet we will refrain from making any further declarations based upon appearances. For those concerned Coral Beach Hotel and Condos had mixed results, some of it had damage and some of it did fine. Those with early reservations should be able to switch if there is a problem with the unit you have reserved. Riviera Towers did have some more blown out windows but no formal statement has been released thus far.

A concern is the schools in Freeport as many, especially in heavily populated Eight Mile Rock, sustained damages. West End did sustain further damages in Hurricane Jeanne, although the spirits of the residents remained high despite their losses.

Power restoration is underway and Grand Bahama Power announced that Jeanne will only set back restoration 2 or 3 days. Water (not potable) was restored today in greater Freeport and was promised to be restored in West End within a week. Power was on by this evening in many residential areas and Port Lucaya as well as many areas downtown.

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