President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce Kevin Seymour, while clinging to optimism, painted a bleak picture of Grand Bahama following the walloping the island took from Hurricane Matthew, the worst storm in the Atlantic in a decade, and among the costliest in recent memory. And in fact, Seymour estimated the cost to rebuild Grand Bahama would be "multiple millions of dollars".

Still, Seymour referenced the devastating 2004/2005 storms - Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma - and the disaster those storms inflicted on the island.

"We've been here and done this before," he said.

"The Grand Bahamian people and the residents of Grand Bahama are quite resilient in terms of bouncing back," he said.

Reconnaissance
Seymour said almost immediately after the all-clear had been given, he took a brief reconnaissance of the immediate environment, and what became readily apparent was that people had prepared themselves.

"Unfortunately, given the catastrophic nature of the storm, even some of the best preparation couldn't save a person's roof off of their house or something like that.

"Nevertheless, all of the essential services kicked in. There was good notices prior to the storm... so I think as a general principle, we were ready, but the storm itself was quite brutal, and some of the damage is going to take a while (to fix).

"One of the things that's readily apparent is the devastation of the infrastructure. So in just about virtually every area, lamp posts are down, and the high-tension and power cables are strewn across the street," he said.

Lessons learned
Seymour asserted that the Grand Bahama Power Company and its partners from Tampa had done a very good job in starting to clear up the main thoroughfares and pushing the wires aside. He added that while Grand Bahamians don't believe recovery is going to happen overnight, they certainly believe that there were lessons learned from the 2004/2005 storms.

"The water has already started to pump in some areas. The service admittedly is intermittent at this time and we are on a ration program. But there again, water is very much dependent on power because of the need to power the pumps to pump the water. So I think once we get a handle on the well-fields and the generation capacity around the well-fields, we'll have a more consistent water supply.

"The damage in terms of a dollar value, one could only guestimate, but I would venture to say at this stage it's far in excess of what we had with Jeanne and Frances back in 2004... It's going to be multi-millions, in terms of the damage. It's going to be a lot, quite frankly," Seymour said.

Seymour said he had sought to stay in communication with business owners and other stakeholders during the storm.

"One of the things that became readily apparent was, there will be a need for skill resources in terms of getting the island restored to normalcy. So if there is a mixed blessing in this all, I could see a very positive impact on employment, certainly in the short term, in terms of the insurance monies that will be pumped into the island, the construction and renovation activities that will be required - so I would see a bit of an artificial bump, if you will," he said.

Speculation
Reports are that some Grand Bahama hotels have been severely damaged. That would mean some of the hotel staff may have no work for some time. That might obviate the "bump" that Seymour spoke of.

And Guardian Business spoke to one Freeport businessman, who asked not to be named, who said, "I don't want to speculate on numbers at this stage, but if you said that Joaquin cost damages of $100 million... I believe Grand Bahama could be in the mid-50s to 80s, perhaps even approaching $100 million by itself."

K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor

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