Abaco Residents Grateful As Life Returns To Normal

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The return to normalcy in Abaco has been swift – from the re-opening of the Leonard M. Thompson International Airport to food stores, operations are back on track, and many residents say they’re just thankful to have been spared the worst.

The storm brought gusty winds and heavy rain that caused some flooding throughout the island, causing some residents to flock to shelters for safety.

Businesses including banks, restaurants and government offices closed temporarily.

However, after three days of rain and wind, the residents here in Abaco are happy the storm is behind them.

Treasure Cay resident Willamae Cooper says she’s grateful her home was left untouched.

Despite the storm’s minimal impact, she says you can never be too prepared:

“  I guess because we went through Dorian, we never feel like we over prepared,” she said.

During our drive around the island today, we saw water had dried up at communities that were flooded just the day before,

Bahama Palm Shores resident Liz Key says the storm caused only minor inconveniences.

“…A little bit of wind, rain, but not like what they said…power went out for about 12 to 14 hours.  Grateful and just glad everybody’s okay and just thank the lord,” she said.

Flooding at the Leonard M Thompson International Airport caused flight cancellations yesterday.

However on Tuesday operations resumed.

Airport Authority Managing Director Peter Rutherford says teams were on the ground and ready to go:

“As of this morning, all of the airports within the jurisdiction have resumed their normal operations, including, Eleuthra, Abaco, as well as Grand Bahama. This would’ve been the first time these particular drains would’ve been tested. So we are gonna do our analysis and take a look at how it performed to determine whether we need to bring engineers in to make some additional changes to that airport…but the drains did hold up as expected” he said.

Community leader, Pastor Silbert Mills, believes the quick recovery shows Abaco is far better prepared than in years past.