Hurricane Isaias Pounds The Bahamas

Hurricane conditions and dangerous storm surge will continue in portions of New Providence on Saturday day and night.

It will produce heavy rains and potentially life threatening flash floods in the country. Storm surges of 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels can be expected along coastal areas throughout New Providence.

At 11am, the Bahamas Department of Meteorology located the center of Isaias over Andros or about 40 miles west-southwest of New Providence, and 135 miles south-southeast of Freeport, Grand Bahama.

Forecasters say the center of Isaias will leave the island of Andros at 2pm today and residents in North Andros will experience a brief calm and are advised not to venture outside.

Maximum sustained winds are near 80 mph with higher gusts. Little change in strength is expected through Sunday and is forecast to remain a hurricane.

South Andros MP Picewell Forbes said there were no major damages in his constituency but slight flooding, toppled trees and down power lines. He said the Little Harbour Dock was affected by the high winds and gushing tides.

Photo credit: ZNS

Residents in Eleuthera, Abaco and Grand Bahama are now experiencing tropical storm force winds which will subside over Eleuthera this afternoon an over Abaco tonight. Tropical storm force winds will continue over GrandBahama through tonight,becoming stronger to possible hurricane strength over the western half of Grand Bahama.

Bahamas Power and Light gave an update on power outages in the islands affected by Hurricane Isaias.

Eleuthera reports windy conditions resulting in lines clashing in the south. Rock Sound Station is offline and all areas south of the station are off. From Hatchet Bay station to Governor’s Harbor airport is on and everything Hatchet Bay to Oleander Gardens is on. Harbor Island is on. From Whale’s Point to the Bluff is off and everything South of Rock Sound station is off. A crew from north is out now assessing and will turn on everything from Governor’s Harbor airport to Tarpum Bay. The crew in the south are preparing now to start getting the South on.

In Central Andros, the south feeder from the power station went offline around 2am and the north at 430am. Central Andros is completely shut down. Light rain with heavy winds about 40/50 miles per hour windgust. Awaiting conditions to improve. In South Andros the South Feeder was opened at 1:30am and the north feeder was opened at 1:45am. The island remains offline with heavy winds and limited rain.

North Andros reports that the station went offline at about 7 am. Supplies will remain off until weather improves.

Cat Island reports that the south feeder is on from the station through Old Bight (Dean Wood). The north circuit is on through Arthurs Town airport. The island reports limited damage with 2 poles reported damaged so far. 1 of these has been replaced.

On Long Island, customers from the station in Millers through Stella Maris remained online through the weather. Customers in the north were impacted by minor line damage. Our team reports that 95% of the North Feeder’s 718 consumers from Millers to Seymours has supply as of 8:25am this morning. Currently, a severe thunder & lightning storm in the area hampering efforts to restore supply to the remainder.