Sandy Estabrook Visiting Abaco since '73 when it was still part of the UK.

Prime Minister Hubert  Minnis said, “Thousands of homes were believed to have been damaged or destroyed and where at least five deaths. October 28th the figures were revised to 67 deaths and 282 people still missing. To put things in perspective, here is a Canadian Video of the same date. 

From the early images, plus the blogs and facebook accounts of Bahamian friends, Dorian has to be the worst Hurricane ever to hit the Abacos. The two words repeated at numerous sites were 'Devistation' and 'Catastrophic'! From what I saw, I concur, having seen first hand the results of a half dozen hurricanes from Floyd to Sandy. They were nowhere as severe and I don't remember any causing death.

On a personal note; a friend of my brother in law had a home & rental home on a creek on Marsh Harbour Eastern Shore area. He was an advertiser on our website and passed along this message from state side. "Lost 2 houses, two cars, and 2 boats and Never Going Back”.

On the positive side, I’ve always been impressed by the Abaconian Joie de vivre, the willingness & enthusiasm to rebuild as witnessed in earlier hurricanes. But as a few voicers pointed out, this wont be a rebuilding, it will be a starting over - a new beginning.

Another positive is the fact that many many people have now heard of The Abacos that have never heard the name before. The number of hits this website saw in September, was four times our highest month and tells me tourism should come back strong.

It will be quite a while before there will be any semblance of normalcy in Abaco. Yet in the gloom of it all by November businesses are springing to life. Infrastructure will take some time for those without a generator. As in the past, rebuilding relating to the tourist industry, Abaco's life blood, is given priority to get "cash flowing" and folks employed. By November these efforts are going full swing. Aiding in the rebuilding process is the governments suspension of the VAT for Abaco through June 2020.  

Two month Video update

Vicki Hatfield a longtime Abaco visitor and who has a home on Great Guana Cay has been a contributor to our website in the past, has posted this account of her return to her island home. It's a must read with great images too.

Here is a collection of over 500 aerial hi-def .heic images if you want to poke around. Turn on slide show. 

Dated Sat. Sept 7, 2019
Update Mon. March 2, 2020
Sandy Estabrook
AbacoEscape.com