Mary Butler rests on a couch near her screen door in hopes of catching a breeze to cool off yesterday. (Photo: Torrell Glinton)

Mary Butler, 75, who lives off the northern end of Baillou Hill Road, said yesterday she is forced to lie awake at night because she has no power and has to leave her door open for air.

The power has been off for two weeks following Hurricane Matthew.

"It's so awful to sleep all night with your front door open; you don't sleep," Butler said.

"Right now I'm drowsy because I have to keep the door open wide to catch a little bit of breeze.

"It's so terrible and I [heard] gunfire night before last and last night I [heard] shots right out here.

"It's so terrible.

"I'm just upset, totally upset."

Butler suffers from several illnesses including shortness of breath, kidney problems and heart problems. She has a pacemaker.

"The pacemaker, where I keep moving up and down because I'm uncomfortable, it started to get a little trembling, like it unbalanced or like it lay on one side," she said.

She sleeps on a couch close to the door so she can be able to feel the cool breeze.

"I wish to God they could hurry up and fix the light so I wouldn't have to keep the door open with mosquitoes biting me," she said.

"I have to spray (Baygon) and when I spray that thing or use the mosquito coil, it [makes] me worse."

Butler's home was dealt a blow from Hurricane Matthew with severe damage to the roof in one of the rooms.

Butler said, luckily for her, she was not at home during the storm.

"The whole roof fell in the bed," she said.

"The hurricane night I didn't sleep here. My daughter came and got me and carried me with her.

"But I was anxious to come back because I just felt like something was wrong.

"But when I looked inside that room I said, 'Great God, suppose I was lying down in that old bed and that whole entire roof collapsed.'

"That would have been terrible for me."

Butler said now she is just praying that the lights will turn on soon.

According to a press release from Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) yesterday, the company has restored 90 percent of power in New Providence following Hurricane Matthew.

Just down the street from Butler's house is the home of Paula Rolle and her 76-year-old mother.

They are also still without power.

"It's very, very frustrating," Rolle said.

"At one point in time we couldn't even get water with the light being off.

"It's hard. You have to do certain things around the house, but you can't.

"At night it's kind of cool, but in the darkness you have to keep candles on hand and keep the oil in the lamp and the products are still very expensive, so you have to keep up with these things."

Rolle said she is most concerned about her mother who has diabetes and hypertension and needs to keep her medicine cool which comes at an extra expense.

"We have to keep buying ice," he said.

"Every day we have to buy ice to keep in the cooler."

Rolle's mother, Jenny Rolle, said the family has to stay on the porch until late at night because of the heat and darkness inside the house.

Felincia Ranger, 18, was sitting outside her house with her siblings on the same street when she told The Nassau Guardian it was all they could do to feel the breeze.

"With the current off it is...hot and you can't iron and stuff like that," Ranger said.

"This heat is ridiculous and I need breeze for my little baby."

Sloan Smith, Guardian Staff Reporter

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