(Eleuthera, Bahamas) – Tuesday’s thunderstorms which swept across Eleuthera, brought torrential rain that caused flash flooding across Central and North Eleuthera.
The flooding was particularly bad in low lying areas of Harbour Island, and on mainland Eleuthera, flooding in Lower Bogue forced closure of the airport. According to Airport Manager, Danielle Gibson, the morning flights on Tuesday came in without any problems, but the deluge of rain that fell in the couple of hours leading to midday, caused flooding across the runway and flights had to be suspended.
The airport remained closed on Wednesday while officials attempted to pump water away from the runway to create a dry path that may allow flights to resume on Thursday (Update: Officials have informed that the airport is to be re-opened at 9:00am local time, Thursday May 7th, 2015)
Homes in the vicinity of the airport on Wednesday evening still had water covering much of their yards, while most of the water that had impeded traffic a day earlier had receded from roads in areas such as Gregory Town (before the bridge) and Rainbow Bay where water tends to gather in siginificant volume.
Officials from the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA headed by Captain Stephen Russell; the Department of Social Services; the Ministry of Works and Urban Development; the Ministry of the Environment and Housing; the Department of Local Government and other agencies, toured affected areas of North Eleuthera and Harbour Island on Wednesday to assess the extent of the damage caused.
This video clip shows the heavy down pour of rain at the airport on Wednesday morning 24h after its closure.
