COMMUNICATION TO
HONOURABLE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
BY
HON. BRADLEY B. ROBERTS
MINISTER OF WORKS & UTILITIES
PROGRESS REPORT ON
INFRASTRUCTURE & UTILITIES (ELECTRICITY, WATER,
TELEPHONES) - HURRICANES
FRANCIS & JEANNE REINSTATEMENT PROGRAMME
NOVEMBER 10, 2004
HURRICANE DAMAGE REPORT
Mr. Speaker, members will recall the Rt. Hon. Prime
Minister’s Communication to this Honourable House in
October during the aftermath of Hurricanes Francis and
Jeanne. I now wish to provide an update on progress made
on the reinstatement of infrastructure and utilities beginning
with the schools.
NEW PROVIDENCE
The schools with the most damage are C.I.Gibson Sr. High,
D.W.Davis Jr. High, C.W.Sawyer Primary, Oakes Field
Primary, R.M. Bailey Sr. High, Claridge Primary and C.H.
Reeves Jr. High. The damages at these schools were
primarily roof, shingle, window and water damage. All have
contractors in place to complete the required repairs.
Contractors or crews are in place or have completed other
schools with minor damages.
GRAND BAHAMA & ABACO
Over all, these two islands suffered the worst damage to the
schools.
In Grand Bahama the worst damaged schools were Grand
Cay All Age, Hugh Campbell Primary, Lewis Yard Primary,
Martin Town Primary and West End Primary. Contractors are
in place and working on these schools.
Of the sixteen schools damaged in Abaco the most severe
damages were at Sherlin C. Bootle High, Coopers Town
Primary, Treasure Cay Primary and Crown Haven
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Preschool. Contractors have been assigned to complete the
repairs at these schools.
ANDROS
Bullocks Harbour All Age School in Berry Island sustained
the most damage in the Andros District. A contractor is in
place to proceed with these repairs. The other schools in the
district reported only minor damage.
ACKLINS
Of the ten schools reporting damage in the Acklins district
two being Acklins Central Secondary and Crooked Island
High were rated the worst with roof damage and flooding.
CAT ISLAND, ELEUTHERA & SAN SALVADOR
These Islands located as they are were in the path of the
Hurricanes and suffered extensive damage.
This District of Cat Island was hit hard with severe damage
at Arthur’s Town High, Old Bight High, San Salvador High
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and United Estates Primary. Work is progressing to ensure
that these repairs are completed.
The Eleuthera District had twenty schools reporting damage
with Preston Albury High, Green Castle Primary, Gregory
Town Primary, Harbour Island All Age, James Cistern
Primary and Rock Sound Primary rated as the worst
damaged. Contractors and scopes of work are in place and
working toward these repairs.
EXUMA & LONG ISLAND
Twenty-two Schools reported damages in these Districts.
Fortunately these were minimal damages requiring minor
repairs.
INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIRS
Hurricane Repairs:
 In New Providence, temporary re-instatement works are
complete on West Bay Street and the road is back in full
service.
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 In Eleuthera and Abaco emergency road repairs are
underway and the roads are expected to be in full service
in the near future.
 Assessments are being carried out in the other Family
Islands and emergency repairs will begin as soon as
possible.
 Traffic Signals in New Providence are mostly repaired and
those remaining are due to be completed in a week.
BAHAMAS ELECTRICITY CORPORATION
Subsequent to the report of October 5, 2004, “Hurricane
Jeanne Overview”, it should be noted that the Bahamas
Electricity Corporation (BEC) has completed the restoration
of electricity to all customers that were impacted by
Hurricane Jeanne.
While Hurricane Jeanne had minimal impact on the islands
of Eleuthera, Great Harbour Cay, Bimini, North Eleuthera
and New Providence there was substantial damage to the
infrastructure on Abaco.
The damages included downed
power lines, downed poles, damaged cables and damaged
switches.
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Supplies to the majority of Abaco were restored in just over a
week of the passage of the hurricane.
However, as of
October 5, 2004, Hope Town, Northern Abaco and Grand
Cay remained without power due to damaged overhead
poles, damaged overhead lines and damaged submarine
cables. The supplies to Hope Town and Northern Abaco
were restored a few days later.
With regards to Grand Cay, in addition to the damages to the
overhead infrastructure on Grand Cay, there were also
damages to the generators on Walkers Cay, which supply
Grand Cay – BEC has an arrangement with Walkers Cay, a
private electricity franchise, to purchase power for Grand
Cay. Additionally, the high voltage levels on Grand Cay differ
from that of the other islands under BEC’s area of supply
and therefore there were additional complications in the
restoration process.
Further, a number of the homes on
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Grand Cay were damaged and therefore it was not safe to
connect them to the BEC system.
Also, due to the fact that there were initial concerns with
regards to the restoration efforts relative to Walkers Cay, it
should be noted that BEC transported a “temporary
generator” to Grand Cay with view to supplying those
residents in the event that there were further delays with the
restoration of electricity to Walkers Cay by the private
owners. However, as of October 14, 2004, supplies were
restored to Grand Cay via Walkers Cay.
Grand Bahama
Grand Bahama, which is under the area of supply of the
Grand Bahama Power Company, was also impacted by both
Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne.
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Due to the extent of the damages in Grand Bahama,
external assistance including the Bahamas Electricity
Corporation was used to facilitate the restoration process.
Power was restored to all areas of Grand Bahama as of
October 29, 2004. There are still some customers that are
without electricity. Those customers, whose premises were
damaged by Hurricane Frances or by Hurricane Jeanne,
require work to be carried out by a licensed electrician
before electricity can safely be restored.
WATER AND SEWERAGE CORPORATION
I now wish to give a brief overview of the impact of Hurricane
Frances in New Providence and the Family Islands. Damage
was mainly experienced in isolated areas and was for the
most part limited to power outage and flooding in low-lying
areas. It must be stated that WSC’s Family Island coverage,
in particular, is limited and this report therefore does not
address the entire population (ie Grand Bahama)
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FAMILY ISLANDS
 ABACO: While flooding occurred in most wellfields, it
was fresh water flooding and therefore only an issue
where it caused some delay in re-commissioning or
power restoration.
o Grand Cay: The main holding tank had extensive
damage but is still operational.
o Moore’s Island: Tank was significantly damaged
during the hurricane and water supply was not
partially re-established until Friday 10-Sep-04.
o Treasure Cay: Sewer lift stations and some minor
water infrastructure damage were experienced.
WSC has taken this system over effective 01-Nov04. The system is operational and repairs should
be completed by Jan-05.
 ELEUTHERA:
o Glass-Window Bridge: As usually occurs in a
storm or hurricane, the pipe on the bridge was
damaged but repairs were effected within 5days.
o Bogue: The wellfield in the Bogue supplies all
residents from Spanish Wells to Windermere. A
stand-by generator was installed and operational
therefore giving some immediate relief to those
north of the glass-window bridge.
 BIMINI:
o Underwater line (UWL) from North to South Bimini
damaged. Repairs have been completed
o Temporary connection was made to the Bimini
Sands RO plant facility pending the repair to the
damage under water line.
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NEW PROVIDENCE
WATER SUPPLY
 NASSAU: The water supply was seriously affected
although there was no extensive damage from the
hurricane. Post-hurricane, supply rationing was
instituted as all production centers were out of power.
WSC worked closely with BEC on re-establishing power
and stand-by generators were rented for sewerage
systems.
 ANDROS WELLFIELD
Andros Wellfield: 50% of the wellfield was flooded
with seawater and could not be placed in operation until
the electrician deemed it safe to do so and following
corrective action by WSC. The wellfield has not fully
recovered in terms of quality but production is at 95%
BAHAMAS TELECOMMUNICATIONS CO.’S HURRICANE
STATUS REPORT
And now Mr. Speaker I will turn my remarks to The Bahamas
Telecommunications Company Ltd., which is BTC.
As the Prime Minister, the Honourable Perry Gladstone
Christie would have informed this Honourable House a few
weeks ago in his report to the nation as it relates to the
restorative efforts as a result of the damages caused by
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Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne; I now wish to update that
report.
Both
hurricanes
exploited
weaknesses
in
the
telecommunications infrastructure provided by BTC on many
Islands of this fair land, including but not limited to San
Salvador,
Cat
Island,
Long
Island,
Eleuthera,
New
Providence, Abaco, Grand Cay, Grand Bahama and Bimini.
The Islands most affected were Grand Bahama, Abaco,
Grand Cay, and Eleuthera.
I now report to this Honourable House that the restorative
work is completed in Long Island, Cat Island, San Salvador
and New Providence and that the forecast to complete
Abaco is the third week of November and restoration in
Grand Bahama should be back to pre-hurricane status by
the end of November 2004. It is estimated that restorative
work in Great Harbour Cay will be completed during the
second week of November.
I again wish to express my government’s appreciation to the
management and staff of BTC and to the many unsung
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heroes who sacrificed themselves to the task of restoration
although themselves being victims of the hurricanes.
Recognizing the archipelagic make-up of The Bahamas with
over 700 Islands, Rocks and Cays, it is through the ingenuity
of the staff at BTC that as a country, residents of The
Bahamas could communicate during the hurricanes. And for
those islands that were severed from the national network
that they could be restored so soon.
I was impressed that for the most part, residents of The
Bahamas could use the telecommunications network to
express themselves on Radio and TV shows during the
hurricanes and thereafter and because of communications
residents in Grand Bahama in particular could call ZNS
Northern Bahamas and the Royal Bahamas Police to be
rescued. This in itself mitigated any lost of life.
There were some challenges that hampered the restoration
efforts but these were and are being surmounted:
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Grand Bahama
In Grand Bahama many of the initial outages were due to
lack of Electricity and downed power lines.
The Cable Network was devastated across Grand Bahama
from McClean’s Town to West End and Grand Cay. The
destruction was such that it was useless to log complaints
into the 914 system. At its peak, 20% to 30% or over 6,120
lines were out of service for a network of about 20,400
working lines. As of Sunday November 7, 2004, 2,649 lines
have been repaired with 3,471 still in need of repair. As
stated earlier, it is forecasted to complete the repairs by the
end of November 2004.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Grand Bahama
Hurricane Command Center Team headed by Senator Dr.
Marcus Bethel, which included Sir Albert Miller the Cocoordinator of the hurricane restoration efforts of the Grand
Bahama Port Authority and his team for the Herculean job
they are doing. Their job has a direct correlation to the
restorative efforts of BTC.
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Grand Cay
In Grand Cay the entire telecommunications infrastructure
was destroyed. BTC first used its Mobile Earth Station to
uplink Grand Cay traffic to a satellite so that it could be
connected to New Providence and therefore to the rest of
the world. This facilitated the provision of pay phone service
until a microwave link taken from Cat Island could be
installed
to
replace
the
destroyed
Microwave
Radio
equipment providing service between Grand Bahama and
Grand Cay.
The destroyed Exchange necessary for providing telephone
service on the Island has been replaced with other
equipment temporarily. The telephone cable connecting the
homes and businesses back to BTC’s Exchange, which was
destroyed in the hurricane, was replaced.
The restoration of the Grand Cay network is scheduled to be
completed next week.
BTC is also in the process of installing cellular services to
Grand Cay for the first time.
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The communications network in Grand Cay will be much
better after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne than it was
before the hurricanes.
Abaco
In order to reconnect Abaco to the national network, BTC
reestablished its Microwave Radio link between Fox Town
Abaco and McCleans Town Grand Bahama.
To mitigate the compromised tower at Cherokee Sound,
BTC installed a Fiber Optic Link between Crossing Rocks
and Sandy Point.
It is sad to report to this Houourable House, Mr. Speaker,
that BTC having installed this Fiber Optic cable, saboteurs
cut this connection in two places and hide the cuts, thus
disconnecting Abaco from the national network.
Again in Marsh Harbour, a 200 pair cable was cut by
saboteurs putting 200 customers out of service thus
hindering the restorative efforts. BTC has reported the
matter to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
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I wish at this time to express to this Honourable House, my
government’s abhorrence at such a dastardly act and hope
that law enforcement will soon catch the perpetrators and
deal with them accordingly. I am sure I speak for the
residents of Abaco who have been affected by the hurricane
and then to have the restorative efforts sabotaged by
criminals.
Initially all Wire Line services, 6,226 working lines, were
affected by hurricane Jeanne due to the lost of the Marsh
Harbour Exchange and the compromised tower in Cherokee
Sound. 1,523 lines were out of service due to faulty cables,
923 lines have been repaired and the remaining 10% or 600
lines are mostly in Murphy Town awaiting remote switching
equipment.
As stated earlier Mr. Speaker, it is estimated that this work
will be completed by the third week of November 2004.
Eleuthera
There are 5,085 installed telephone lines in Eleuthera. Fiftyfour percent (54%) or 2,755 lines were lost during the storm.
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Seventy-five (75%) of the main cable network (InterSettlement Feeders) were affected.
Restoration of the Main Feeder cable network is sixty-five
percent (65%) completed and 2,755 lines have been
restored. The lines presently in disrepair is about 80
representing three percent (3%) of the network.
It is expected that the restorative work will be completed the
first week of December 2004.
Great Harbour Cay
Great Harbour Cay has an installed telephone network of
447 lines. Forty-five percent (45%) or 201 lines were
affected by the storm.
Eighty-five percent (85%) of the cable network has been
rebuilt and ninety- seven percent (97%) of the services have
been restored. The remaining three faults are due to internal
issues or inability to access property (Resident out of the
Country).
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Mr. Speaker in closing, I wish to express my Government’s
deep appreciation to the management and staff of BTC for
the work that they have done.
Mr. Speaker, the technical staff of my Ministry have been
working at an accelerated pace to complete the assessment
and scope of works for repairs to other Government
buildings, other roads and seawalls in New Providence and
the Family Islands. These will be the subject of my next
report to this Honourable Chamber. I should like to record
my Government’s thanks and gratitude to the staff of my
Ministry, in New Providence and in the Family Islands, for
their outstanding service rendered during this difficult period.
I also wish to thank the private sector for the part they played
in the clean up and restoration which will take some time to
complete.
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