As rescuers search for bodies amid mountains of debris and the stench of death on the Bahamas island of Abaco, life on most of the archipelago’s 700 isles is little changed.
Cruise ships have pulled in and out of the capital and tourist hub Nassau in the two weeks since Hurricane Dorian struck the northwestern islands, depositing foreign sightseers on shore who haggle for conch shells and T-shirts.
Workers in the country’s vital tourist trade are hoping for a quick comeback, even as the Bahamas struggles with its first steps towards recovery from a storm that killed at least 50 people and left around 70,000 more needing shelter, food and water and medical aid.
The sector faces many challenges: Two popular tourist destinations — Abaco and the island of Grand Bahama — were essentially swept off the tourist maps by Dorian.
“Those were our second and third most important destinations,” said Ellison “Tommy” Thompson, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation.
Thompson said no one was talking about “throwing up our hands and giving up” on the hard-hit islands. But the images of the devastation have affected everyone from tour operators on the islands to US-based travel agents who help connect travellers with cruise ships and activities.
Highlighting the destruction, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” on Saturday after taking an aerial tour of Abaco.
“I’ve never seen such a level of systematic devastation,” Guterres told reporters. “Hurricane Dorian has been classified as Category 5, I think it is Category Hell, but it was not powered by the devil.” Tourism last year accounted for $5.7 billion, about half the country’s gross domestic product, according to Thompson.
Away from Nassau’s tourist strip, luxury hotels were also bustling. At Baha Mar, an opulent hotel and entertainment complex, the casino floor was littered with vacationers shooting craps, sipping martinis at a piano bar and ordering $100-plus platters of sushi.
Just over 145 km to the north, the hunt for bodies continued amid the wreckage of Abaco, where the United Nations’ World Food Programme says about 90 per cent of structures were destroyed.
“This has devastated our spirits and we are mourning with our friends who lost loved but the reality is that life has to go on,” said construction company owner Jackson Brennen, 57, who was celebrating his wife’s birthday at Nassau’s Baha Mar. “Only two of the islands were devastated, we’re still open for business, but it’s very difficult because the pain hasn’t stopped.” — Reuters
Zachary Fagenson
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