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After three weeks of crippling power disruption that upended daily life across Grand Cay, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has moved to provide immediate relief to local customers by covering their most recent electricity bills, with full service restoration completed on the evening of August 26. The prolonged blackout, which stemmed from delays in generator repair and shipping delays for a replacement unit, has pushed the utility to fast-track long-term plans for a far more robust and reliable power generation system for the island community.

Local resident Craig Cephas, one of the earliest voices calling for BPL to offset the steep personal costs residents incurred from relying on portable generators, confirmed that the utility had wiped out his latest round of electricity charges, which totaled nearly $600. While his existing outstanding balance of around $843 remains unpaid, Cephas noted that the credit does not come close to matching the $1,890 he estimates he spent on fuel for his personal generator over the three-week outage. Even so, he framed the move as a welcome gesture of good faith from the company.

“It isn’t the full amount I paid out of pocket, but it at least shows they recognize what we went through,” Cephas said in an interview. “I didn’t expect them to cover 100% of our fuel costs, but any relief makes a difference. That $90 a day I spent was money I couldn’t really afford to lose; it’s just gone now.”

For Grand Cay residents, the restoration of regular power has marked a long-awaited return to normalcy. After weeks of coping without reliable cooling, running water, or consistent phone service, Cephas said the mood across the community is one of widespread relief. “Having air conditioning back in your home makes everything feel calmer – it’s night and day compared to the frustration we dealt with for three straight weeks,” he explained. “Water and phone service are back up too, and honestly, almost everyone is just glad to have normal life back.” A brief one-hour interruption to power on Thursday morning was confirmed as a scheduled, pre-planned shutdown to allow BPL crews to complete post-restoration checks, according to Cephas.

Marvin Green, BPL’s Northern Regional Manager, acknowledged the significant frustration and hardship the extended outage caused for Grand Cay residents. He confirmed that the company is now turning its full attention to improving the long-term reliability of the island’s power supply. Green noted that BPL has been developing a comprehensive long-term generation solution for Little Grand Cay for over two years, a project designed to boost overall generation capacity, add sufficient backup power capacity, and strengthen overall energy security for the community.

Looking ahead, BPL plans to host an on-island community meeting to give residents a chance to share their concerns directly and receive up-to-date information on the planned generation improvements. During the visit, residents who suffered damage to home appliances or other electrical equipment from power-related issues during the outage will be able to submit formal damage claim forms for review under the utility’s existing claims process. In a statement, BPL acknowledged the severe hardship that extended outages create, especially for small Family Island communities, and thanked local residents for their patience throughout the complex restoration process.

For many families raising autistic children across The Bahamas, gaps in affordable, accessible special education support have long created crippling uncertainty. But one determined mother from Grand Bahama has turned her personal struggle into a growing resource for communities across the islands, after teaching herself to care for her non-verbal autistic son when existing programs were out of reach.

Willinique Wilson-Smith, a 25-year-old mother who goes by the social media handle Miss Spectrum, first began her autism journey when her son Asheene – known widely as AJ – received an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis at the age of two. Now four years old, AJ is non-verbal and homeschooled full-time by Wilson-Smith, who provides round-the-clock care for her son. Wilson-Smith made the decision to pull AJ from formal programming after discovering that while limited options do exist, their cost puts them out of reach for most Bahamian families. “There are programmes available,” she explained. “Most of us were not able to afford these, and I was one of those parents.”

Rather than accept that her son would go without targeted support, Wilson-Smith chose to take her son’s care and education into her own hands. “If I can’t afford it, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to be able to educate myself to help him as best as possible,” she said.

Wilson-Smith’s experience is far from unique. For decades, Bahamian families of autistic children have raised urgent concerns about the severe lack of accessible special education services across the country. Many families have even been forced to travel to the United States or Canada to secure formal diagnostic assessments for their children, a costly and logistically draining barrier for most households. Just this past July, the Bahamian Ministry of Education unveiled plans to create a national autism registry, during a town hall where caregivers highlighted the widespread lack of post-school therapy and support, leaving many families overwhelmed and unsure of their children’s long-term futures.

Wilson-Smith notes that while Grand Bahama does host a small number of schools with special education programming, available spots are extremely limited. Beyond limited school spaces, she also points to a critical shortage of early intervention services for children diagnosed at young ages, as well as an overall shortage of trained special education teachers across the country. She advocates for systemic change, including earlier routine screening for autism, more affordable diagnostic assessments and ongoing therapy, and lower-cost support services for low and middle-income Bahamian families.

Wilson-Smith’s first introduction to her son’s autism came when she began noticing unexpected developmental changes: AJ began to regress, lost his ability to speak, struggled with walking, and developed common repetitive autistic behaviors such as persistent hand-flapping, and intense frustration when his daily routine was disrupted. Wilson-Smith did not immediately suspect autism, but she was determined to get answers for her son’s changes. For her, the diagnosis itself was not devastating – growing up in a family of educators, she was raised to celebrate neurodiversity rather than fear difference. “When I got that response in the doctor’s office, I say, ‘Okay, great. Let me start to educate myself,’” she recalled.

Today, Wilson-Smith’s daily life revolves around AJ’s care and homeschooling. While running a small side babysitting business to support her family, she structures each day around AJ’s needs: starting with getting him dressed and preparing breakfast, followed by morning devotions and personalized learning activities. Because AJ is non-verbal, Wilson-Smith uses picture cards and an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device to help him express his needs. She has only heard AJ call her “mummy” once, and says she waits patiently to hear it again when AJ is ready.

What started as a personal mission to support her own son has quickly grown into a public resource for hundreds of other Bahamian families. Operating under her Miss Spectrum brand, Wilson-Smith shares free, culturally relevant guidance online for local families, covering topics ranging from de-escalating autistic meltdowns to understanding the breadth of the autism spectrum, and evidence-based strategies for supporting autistic children at home. She also plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in special education at the University of The Bahamas if a specialized program becomes available, to expand her ability to support local families.

Her next major project is aimed at closing the gap in affordable educational resources for Bahamian families: an animated subscription-based educational program called STIM Pals, scheduled to launch in 2025. The series will feature child-friendly characters covering core skills for autistic children, including communication, sensory awareness, routine management, emotional regulation, inclusion, helping others, friendship, and celebrating neurodiversity. For Wilson-Smith, the project is personal: she hopes it will bring much-needed affordable support to Bahamian families who, like her own, have struggled to navigate the gaps in the country’s current special education system.

A controversial fence that was abruptly constructed across a section of Paradise Island’s Cabbage Beach earlier this week is set to be removed, after long-time local vendors launched a public outcry warning the structure would destroy the tourism-dependent small businesses that support hundreds of Bahamian families.

The unexpected construction caught vendors completely off guard. For decades, these small business operators have served tourists at the iconic public beach, earning income to pay mortgages, cover school tuition, support household costs and raise their families. When vendors arrived for work the morning the construction began, they found crews already erecting the barrier with no prior notice of how their operations would be able to continue moving forward.

According to the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, the developer’s unilateral decision to move forward with the fence without completing required stakeholder consultations was “regrettable”. Officials confirmed that the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) had already stepped in to intervene after the vendors raised their objections. Prior agreements between the ministry and the developer called for a joint site walkthrough to assess potential impacts on local vendors before any construction work got underway – a step the developer skipped entirely when erecting the fence.

Vendors say the barrier would have cut off critical working space, leaving too little room between the fence and the shoreline for their stalls, beach rental equipment, umbrellas, customer seating and room to move inland to avoid high tides. Ishmael Sutherland, a 50-year-old vendor who has operated at Cabbage Beach for 32 years, explained that the fence would have entirely put him and other operators out of work. He noted that vendors regularly shift their equipment further inland during high tide to avoid storm damage, and the fence would have blocked access to that necessary safe space.

The fence was installed in conjunction with a proposed Four Seasons resort development on adjacent land acquired by the project. Sutherland said vendors had previously received formal assurances that their operations would be accommodated throughout construction and beyond, with commitments that vendors wanting to stay would retain beach access and those who relocated temporarily would receive compensation for any lost revenue during construction. Even with that promise, the unannounced fence construction left vendors fearing their livelihoods were at imminent risk.

Twenty-two licensed vendors currently operate at Cabbage Beach, many of whom hire additional local staff, meaning any disruption to their businesses would ripple out to impact dozens of additional workers and their families. For Varnell Tamika Williams, a 49-year-old vendor who has worked on the beach since childhood and raised three daughters on income from her business, the dispute is about more than just a fence – it is about protecting the livelihoods of generations of Bahamians who built up the beach’s reputation as a top tourist destination.

Williams emphasized that all Cabbage Beach vendors operate legally: they hold active business licenses, pay national insurance contributions, maintain required health certifications and carry official Ministry of Tourism identification, meaning they operate as legitimate, tax-contributing businesses just like any other formal employer. She criticized the complete lack of advance consultation, noting that even regular ministry contacts could not explain the construction when vendors first reached out. Even with the upcoming fence removal, Williams said vendors’ core concerns about future disruptions from the resort construction remain unresolved. She called for the developer to commit to a temporary operating zone for vendors during construction, provide assistance relocating stalls, and give formal, written guarantees that vendors can return to their spots once the hotel project is complete.

Maurice Major, a third-generation vendor who has worked the beach for 31 years after inheriting his late mother’s business, one of the first established at Cabbage Beach, called for direct intervention from Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Tourism Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin. He stressed that while the developer owns the adjacent inland land, Cabbage Beach remains public property, and no private development can restrict public access or displace long-time local operators. “They can do whatever they want to do up there [on their own land], but they can’t own our beach,” Major said.

Local elected official Lincoln Deal, Member of Parliament for Free Town, where Cabbage Beach is located, has publicly backed the vendors, saying they deserve full consultation and fair treatment in any decisions that impact their ability to earn a living. “Cabbage Beach is in Free Town, but it is also one of our country’s most iconic public beaches,” Deal noted. “We must protect public access, respect Bahamian livelihoods and ensure that development never comes at the expense of our people.”

Even water sports operators, including jet-ski provider Auderly Smith, who has worked the beach since 2007, warned the restricted shoreline access would also hurt their businesses, as reduced space would limit their ability to launch and retrieve equipment.

After the intervention, the Ministry of Tourism announced that once the fence is removed, multi-stakeholder discussions will resume between the developer, DEPP, affected vendors and ministry officials to map out an acceptable path forward for the development. The ministry made clear it has “zero tolerance for the economic displacement of Bahamians whose livelihoods depend on participation in the tourism economy”, and reminded the developer of its existing legal and contractual commitments to compensate any affected vendors and ensure local people benefit from the economic activity generated by the new resort.

The ministry emphasized that private development and inclusive local economic participation do not need to be opposing goals. “Environmental protection and economic opportunity can and must coexist,” the ministry said in a statement. “The way forward requires consultation, cooperation and a solution that protects the beach while safeguarding the livelihoods of Bahamians.”