Nassau's Famous Straw Market Dealt a Blow by Irene
Nassau's Famous Straw Market Dealt a Blow by Irene
By Kimberly Miller
A decade after Nassau's famous straw market was destroyed by fire, hurricane Irene dealt it another blow Thursday, shredding the giant tent that had served as its temporary home since 2001.
The market was set to move into a permanent building on Bay Street in the fall, but merchants who keep booths in the downtown tourist attraction hope that date will now be moved forward.
"We expected some damage but not as bad as this," said Shakira Stuart, who has sold souvenirs from a table inside the market for seven years. "Only God knows now when we'll be back to work."
While much of the merchandise had been removed prior to the arrival of Hurricane Irene's winds late Wednesday, purses, beaded necklaces and woven baskets were mixed in with other debris strewn under the tent. Despite the straw market destruction, other damage on this island of about 249,000 people appeared mostly confined to uprooted trees, downed tree limbs, a few broken windows on Bay Street and dangling electric lines, sometimes falling from snapped electric poles.
On New Providence, the Bahamas Electricity Corp. reported that that 30 percent of the island continued to have service Thursday afternoon. It either doesn't know the status of the remainder of the households, or the service is spotty or out completely. By 4 p.m. many residents here were leaving their homes to investigate Irene's handiwork, despite scattered rain, still gusting winds and the threat of live electrical wires.
Kirkwood Evans, owner of Goldie's Conch House at the beachside Fish Fry Village, arrived to find his back pool room and pool tables soaked from driving rain that made its way under loose roof tiles. His sign too was torn from the front of the restaurant he said he's owned for 22 years.
"As long as the building is still standing, that's good," Evans said. "All this stuff, I can buy again." With Hurricane Irene largely sparing Nassau, concern turned to the island of Abaco, about 105 miles north of Nassau, which was experiencing the brunt of Irene's hurricane force winds Thursday evening.
Palm Beach County resident and landscape business owner Scott Lewis is readying his emergency response team to head into Abaco and the island of Eleuthera on Saturday.
"This is big," said Lewis, who helped Abaco and Marsh Harbour after 1999's Hurricane Floyd. "There are two large Haitian communities that are in shantytowns. They are going to be devastated."
Hurricane Irene was only the third storm since 1866 that had crossed the entire length of the island chain, and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said the country was braced for extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure. But he predicted few casualties overall. No injuries or fatalities had been reported as of Thursday afternoon.
Indeed, property damage appeared likely to be extensive on Acklins and Crooked islands, in the southern part of the chain, said Capt. Stephen Russell, director of the country's National Emergency Management Agency.
A settlement known as Lovely Bay was destroyed while at least 40 homes were badly damaged on the island of Mayaguana, the agency said. Authorities were still gathering damage reports and there were few details on the destruction.
Major damage was also anticipated on the island of Eleuthera, which was being battered Thursday morning, as well as Rum Cay and Cat Island - where a 128 mph gust was recorded by the hurricane center. "That can be devastating for some of those islands," Russell said.
The National Hurricane Center warned Thursday that an "extremely dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 7 to 11 feet (2 to 3 meters) above normal tide levels over the Bahamas."
Hurricane Irene was expected to bring up to a foot of rain to parts of the island nation. Nassau resident Christine Mackey had no electricity, and didn't expect to for at least 48 hours, but she had her home intact and for that she was grateful. "I was expecting it to be much worse than this," she said.
Indeed, while some Bahamians expressed concerns about tourism rebounding from the storm that has raked the entire chain of islands, Anthony "Grouper" Higgs said he's not worried.
"They'll come back," said Higgs, who is manager of a soon-to-open downtown restaurant called, Blu. "Putting the island back together won't take that much effort and we look really good in the wintertime especially."
