Hurricane Irene wreaks havoc in The Islands

Irene wreaks havoc

By KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
krystel@nasguard.com

Hurricane Irene started its exit from The Bahamas last night, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

While New Providence and Grand Bahama were spared the full force of the storm, many Family Islands, particularly the southeastern and central islands, were pummelled, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported.

The center of the storm passed over Eleuthera and Abaco for much of yesterday.

Power lines and telecommunications lines went down in some islands as the category three storm roared across the archipelago.

But no loss of life or injuries were reported.

Damage on Cat Island, Rum Cay, Crooked Island, Acklins and Mayaguana is expected to be in the millions of dollars, as hundreds of homes, churches, other buildings and infrastructure were either damaged or destroyed.

According to NEMA reports, all the islands were impacted in some way.

In New Providence, fallen trees and damaged roofs constituted most of the damage.

In Lovely Bay, Acklins, 90 percent of the settlement is reportedly gone, according to NEMA.

“House roofs and several homes [were] blown away.  Power lines and trees went down in the roads, and the shelter’s population increased,” said a NEMA statement.

Communication on that island was limited yesterday.

Meteorologist Godfrey Burnside said the Automatic Weather Station in Arthur’s Town, Cat Island, recorded gusts of 140 miles per hour around 2 a.m. yesterday, and Moss Town, Exuma, recorded gusts up to 127 miles per hour.

“That is significant and that is why you hear all the damage taking place,” Burnside said.

Just over two inches of rain had fallen at Lynden Pindling International Airport at 9 a.m. yesterday, and more was expected.

NEMA said it received reports that 40 houses received major damage in the communities of Betsy Bay, Pirate Wells and Abraham’s Bay on Mayaguana.

Concerns were also expressed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police John Ferguson in reference to three people detained at a police station there, NEMA said.

On Cat Island, hurricane force winds brought down scores of power lines and left the island without any form of telecommunication, NEMA reported.

NEMA also received reports that the administrator’s home in north Cat Island lost its roof.

Areas in Arthur’s Town and Dumfries flooded.  The roof of the police station in Arthur’s Town was blown off and police vehicles were flooded.  St. Andrew’s Church also lost its roof, NEMA reported.

In Rum Cay, which is home to about 100 people, NEMA received a report that homes have major damage, roads are impassable due to fallen trees and the bridge in Port Nelson is lost.

According to the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), residents in most islands with the exception of Inagua — where power was restored to the majority of customers — continued to experience outages up to last night due to controlled power station shut downs or downed power lines.

NEMA said at least one school was damaged on Crooked Island.

The school in Colonel Hill lost its roof and two classroom blocks.  Additionally, St. John’s Baptist Church and several other buildings also lost their roofs.

That island experienced winds around 120 miles per hour, according to NEMA.

Long Island Administrator Jordan Ritchie said the main concern was flooding in Clarence Town.

However, a number of homes and St. Paul’s Anglican Church received roof damage.

Meantime, Central Eleuthera Administrator Chrisfield Johnson said based on initial reports, Eleuthera fared relatively well.

“So far we haven’t had loss of life.  There is some structural damage to buildings but we haven’t done an assessment so we don’t know the extent,” he told The Nassau Guardian yesterday evening.

It was still too dangerous to go out, he said.

“The only thing that remains is to do an assessment of the environment,” Johnson said.

“There is a tremendous amount of debris on the roads.  Our first priority is to clear the streets, so we’re putting together a team of workers to clear the streets to give us access.”

He said he would determine the severity of the impact of Irene sometime today, when he expects to be able to conduct a door-to-door assessment.

NEMA Director Captain Stephen Russell said NEMA is still determining how it will access the affected islands, as transportation may be limited over the next few days.

NEMA is expected to release a more detailed statement on the damage caused by Irene sometime today.

Aug 26, 2011

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

British Petroleum's (BP) Gulf of Mexico oil spill threat for The Bahamas is 'not over'

Oil threat for Bahamas 'not over'
By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net:



A lead co-ordinator in the government's Gulf oil spill response team says that despite British Petroleum's success in stopping the oil gushing from the damaged well "the threat is not over" as far as the Bahamas is concerned.

Director of the National Emergency Management Agency, Captain Stephen Russell, who heads the National Oil Spill Contingency Committee, said the group has submitted a plan to continue monitoring any potential impact from the oil spill until the end of the year, at the earliest.

"We haven't slackened, we are keeping our eye on it," said Mr Russell yesterday morning. He noted that a team of experts set off on a second exploratory mission from Nassau to the Cay Sal Bank in the Bahama Banks on Monday, to continue taking samples and checking for any tar balls in Bahamian waters.

The team of scientists and environmentalists was scheduled to arrive in Cay Sal yesterday afternoon to begin their investigations.

Their visit comes just under a week after BP announced that after 85 days and the release of up to 184 million gallons of oil into the marine environment, it had successfully capped the leaking well, stopping the flow of crude.

Officials were cautious in their response to the news last Thursday that the placement of a 75-ton cap had successfully halted the flow of oil. US president Barack Obama called the development a "positive sign" but added, "We're still in the testing phase."

In the last few days some oil and gas has been detected around the well, raising concerns that the cap may not be withstanding the pressure from the oil within the well.

Hope

However, officials have expressed hope that the cap can largely contain the oil until relief wells are drilled which are expected to provide a permanent fix.

So far, no evidence of oil having reached Bahamian waters has been found. The spill has been accumulating in the Gulf of Mexico and along the southern coast of the United States since April 22, after the destruction of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig following an explosion at the site.

The oil rig was leased to British energy company BP at the time of the incident and the company has promised to pay legitimate claims for compensation stemming from the extensive damage that is resulting from the oil being released into the environment.

Mr Russell told The Tribune that officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Attorney General's Office continue to pursue the possibility of seeking compensation from the company for the Bahamas to cover the cost of efforts already undertaken by the government's Oil Spill Contingency Committee in response to the spill.

"It has been discussed at two levels locally, and at the CARICOM level, so we will see. We'll allow Foreign Affairs and the AG's office to see how we can engage BP either through the British Foreign Office or the US office. Likewise, we'll see CARICOM's approach," said Capt Russell.

July 21, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas National Oil Spill Committee is set to present its disaster management plan...

Oil disaster management plan to be presented
By MEGAN REYNOLDS
Tribune Staff Reporter
mreynolds@tribunemedia.net:


THE National Oil Spill Committee is set to present its disaster management plan today as it was revealed that "favourable winds are the only thing preventing the Gulf of Mexico spill from reaching the Bahamas.

As the committee prepares to confront the world's worst offshore oil disaster, weather predictions suggest the current prevailing wind direction will protect the Bahamas until Tuesday, however a change in wind pattern is expected to move the oil towards the western Bahamas.

A detailed national strategy devised with two International Maritime Organisation (IMO) experts will be presented to committee chairman, Captain Patrick O'Neil and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) director Captain Stephen Russell today and passed on to Environment Minister Earl Deveaux.

The multi-agency committee will also meet with the IMO and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today as Florida braced for an oil sheen containing thousands of tar balls, heavy globs of decayed oil, to reach the white sand beaches of Pensacola on the west coast.

However, southern winds predicted over the next five days will keep surface oil in the Gulf and west of Florida, Department of Meteorology chief climatological officer Michael Stubbs said.

"The winds are providing a protective barrier in the meantime," he told The Tribune.

"But the news now indicates the oil has entered the loop current, which feeds directly into the Gulf Stream and that moves towards our western shores.

"Ultimately, that is our concern, that it could end up in the Gulf Stream.

"However right now there is no need to panic, at least until Tuesday next week."

If the wind changes direction and spreads to the Florida Keys it will take about a week to then reach the Bahamas, National Oil Spill Committee spokesman Eric Carey said.

"We feel confident that the weather patterns are still in our favour," he said.

"Most of the currents are pushing it on shore of the Gulf and keeping it away from the Bahamas.

"But if it gets into the Florida Keys it would be an indication that it would be here in a week or so, and whatever gets to Florida and the Keys, we will probably get the same type of material."

Oil slicks are not expected but tar balls could drift towards the western coastlines, Mr Carey said.

As it will not be possible to install a 600-mile long boom to protect the Bahamas' western shoreline, the national strategy will involve booming key areas and cleaning up affected rocky shores.

Mr Carey said: "If we can boom off beaches we will have to clean up other areas like rocky shores as much as we can."

Meanwhile scientists are collecting evidence of tar-free shorelines, and having completed field work in Cay Sal Bank, the westernmost point of the Bahamas 145km west of Andros, they will move on to Bimini and other western coastlines to document baseline samples from sediment and fish.

Leading marine ecologist Dr Ethan Freid and marine biologist Kathleen Sealy will start training of more than 20 volunteers from Andros, Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) base in Coral Harbour on Monday.

The volunteers will then return home and train others to help them collect samples from the islands.

Mr Carey said: "If in the future the Bahamas is going to claim to some international litigation process, that the Gulf oil disaster is responsible for effects we see on tourism, fisheries resources, blue holes or other water resources, then we will have to prove that these people were properly trained.

"And as this oil event continues in the Gulf we need to have very credible samples."

Samples will be kept in a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified laboratory so they may be presented as evidence in court if the government decides to seek compensation for the clean-up costs and destruction from the spill.

The United States Justice Department announced on Tuesday it has launched criminal and civil probes into the spill.

Attempts to plug the well with mud failed over the weekend and subsequent efforts to cut off the fractured pipe and seal it hit a snag when a saw became stuck in a thick pipe on the sea bed on Tuesday, prompting a sharp decline in BP's shares on the stock market.

It is now estimated the oil could remain uncapped for two months or more as BP is drilling two relief wells to permanently plug the leak, but they are not expected to be completed until August.

The impact of the spill could be worsened by the impact of a cyclone, storm or hurricane in the Gulf this season which could hamper efforts to plug the spill and spread the oil.

Deep waters surrounding Cay Sal Bank, Abaco and Bimini are among the most important fishing grounds in the Bahamas and the extensive creek system on the west coast of Andros is largely protected by a national park boundary which the Nature Conservancy is hoping to extend with funding donated by Disney through the release of the child-friendly documentary "Oceans."

BP estimates the disaster has so far cost the company approximately $990 million in clean-up costs since BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20 killing 11 workers and collapsing into the Gulf of Mexico.

June 03, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International