标签： Bahamas

A new chapter of Bahamian community organizing made its official debut in Orlando Friday night, as the freshly established Central Florida Chapter of Bahamians in Central Florida (BICF) hosted its first public Meet & Greet at local venue CB Bistro. The event drew a sold-out capacity crowd, a turnout that organizers frame as a landmark moment for the growing Bahamian diaspora across Central Florida.

Friday’s gathering brought together a diverse cross-section of attendees: native Bahamians, people of Bahamian descent, and friends of the Bahamian community from across the wider Central Florida region. Over the course of the evening, participants connected over shared cultural ties, built new professional and personal networks, and celebrated the distinct traditions and heritage of The Bahamas. For organizers, the overwhelming response to the launch event confirms what they had long suspected: there is unmet demand for a dedicated local group that prioritizes preserving Bahamian culture while forging tight-knit community bonds in the region.

The inaugural evening also served another key organizational purpose: formal confirmation of the chapter’s founding executive leadership team, which will steer the group through its critical early development years. The confirmed slate of officers includes Chairman Terrelle Tynes-Wilson Harvey, Deputy Chairman Paul Fernander, Treasurer Yvonne Laing Larris, Assistant Treasurer Lenny Curtis, Secretary Krystle Curling, Assistant Secretary Virginia Brathwaite, and Chaplain Reginald Pennerman. Organizers note that additional committee roles and supporting officer positions will be filled and announced publicly in the coming weeks as the chapter continues to build out its infrastructure.

Currently, the newly formed executive committee is deep in work drafting a formal Constitution and Articles of Association, documents that will outline the group’s long-term governing structure. Under the proposed organizational framework, the chapter will operate under the umbrella of Bahamians in Central Florida with a clear four-part mission: unite Bahamians and allies of Bahamian culture through fellowship, educational programming, community outreach, and mutual support for members. Beyond community building, the organization has also outlined plans to contribute to broader public good, including backing disaster relief initiatives targeted at The Bahamas, expanding access to educational programming for community members, and supporting local and national charitable projects.

To support its operations, the chapter has established a formal membership structure open to all who align with its mission: native Bahamians, people of Bahamian heritage, and any supporters of the group’s work. Annual membership dues are set at $100, with a tier of benefits including discounted entry to all chapter events, full voting rights on organizational matters, eligibility to run for elected leadership positions, and exclusive access to the group’s ongoing networking events. Under the proposed bylaws, all executive leadership positions will stand for re-election every two years to ensure democratic governance of the chapter.

Buoyed by the success of the launch event, organizers are already moving forward with planning their next public gathering: a community-wide potluck that will allow members to share traditional Bahamian cuisine and deepen connections. Full details on the potluck will be released in the near future as arrangements are finalized. Chapter leadership says the energy and momentum generated by the sold-out inaugural event has laid a strong, stable foundation for the organization, with the long-term goal of becoming one of Central Florida’s most prominent and impactful Bahamian community groups.

A viral social media post highlighting severe structural decay on the Ferry Bridge linking Great Exuma and Little Exuma has prompted official confirmation from the Bahamas’ Ministry of Works and Family Island Affairs that the aging crossing requires full replacement — though the government has yet to announce when construction on a new structure will get underway. The bridge is counted among nine high-priority infrastructure projects prioritized by the current Davis administration, after engineering assessments completed by the ministry verified the need for full replacement. In an official statement released Tuesday evening, the ministry noted that its technical teams have long been aware of the crossing’s deteriorating condition, and preliminary design work for the replacement bridge has already been finalized. Necessary pre-construction technical reviews and public planning processes are currently moving forward, according to the agency.

Despite confirming the replacement plan, officials declined to address a key claim accompanying the widely shared viral video: that chunks of concrete break away and fall into the surrounding water when heavy trucks traverse the structure. The footage shows loose material dangling from the bridge’s underside, which the accompanying social media post identified as exposed reinforcing steel. Until the replacement project breaks ground, ministry engineers will conduct regular safety inspections of the existing structure to protect the thousands of motorists and local residents who depend on the inter-island connection. “In the interim, the Ministry’s engineers will continue to monitor the existing structure, and advise on any measures necessary to protect the safety of motorists and residents who rely on this critical connection between Great and Little Exuma,” the statement read. Officials added they recognize the Ferry Bridge’s central role in supporting daily life and local economic activity across the Exumas, and will publish additional updates as technical design, procurement, and implementation work progresses.

Before the ministry released its formal statement, Glenn Davis, Chief Councillor of Exuma, told local outlet The Tribune that government assessments of the bridge had been completed previously, and replacement plans had already been drafted. “I don’t know if it’s a danger,” Davis said, “but I know that heavy vehicles or heavy loads shouldn’t cross the bridge.” He explained that government inspectors carried out a full review of the structure last year, and concluded that full replacement was the only viable solution, adding that the existing bridge has stood for decades and all required pre-planning work to scope the project has already been finished.

Local perspectives on the bridge’s safety have been divided in the wake of the viral video. Cecil Smith, a long-time Exuma resident, warned against drawing conclusions about the bridge’s safety from social media footage alone. “I am not aware of any report by certified government engineers or otherwise that the bridge is unsafe,” Smith said. “However, there have been in the past some restrictions about certain tonnage going across the bridge.” Smith added that he does not know the official weight limit or whether those restrictions are still enforced, and stressed that only qualified government engineering professionals can properly assess the structure’s condition, arguing the viral video does not prove the bridge is at risk of collapse. Another local resident, who requested anonymity, told reporters that she believes the viral footage exaggerates the bridge’s current condition, though she acknowledged that critical repairs or replacement are long overdue.

The renewed public scrutiny of the Ferry Bridge comes just one week after a sudden structural failure led to the immediate condemnation of the Fresh Creek Bridge on the nearby island of Central Andros, which cut off a critical transportation artery for the community. As The Tribune reported on August 5, an intermediate supporting pier on one of the Fresh Creek Bridge’s pile caps sank, shifting the entire structure’s weight to just two external supports and causing three concrete bridge slabs to subside. Officials ordered the bridge immediately closed to all vehicle traffic, announcing that the structure would be fully demolished rather than repaired due to the extent of the damage.

The sudden closure severely disrupted travel across Central Andros, cutting off access to the island’s airport, government service centers, and local businesses. It also initially delayed restoration work by Bahamas Power and Light crews, who were unable to transport heavy equipment to repair outages in Cargill Creek and parts of South Andros. Officials noted that a prefabricated temporary bridge sourced from a supplier in New York will take approximately two months to be delivered and installed on Andros, leaving residents facing extended disruption to travel and commerce.

A routine family getaway to Haiti has turned into an unthinkable tragedy for a Bahamian community, after a 39-year-old father of three from Eleuthera died in a boating accident just four days into the trip. As Andre Dean’s family waits for clear answers from Haitian law enforcement about the exact circumstances of his death, they are pushing back hard against damaging online rumors that falsely linked his passing to violence and drug trafficking.

According to Dean’s sister, Kenva Neely, who spoke to The Tribune from Haiti, Dean traveled to the Caribbean nation last week alongside Neely and their mother to visit family on his stepfather’s side. This trip marked Dean’s second visit to Haiti, after he fell in love with the country during his first stay. Neely shared that her brother had reflected deeply on the privileged life his three young children – aged two, 10, and 16 – enjoy back in The Bahamas, telling his family he wanted his kids to learn gratitude for their comfortable lives after seeing the conditions local children navigate in Haiti.

Dean’s wife and three children remained in The Bahamas for the trip, a choice that leaves them now grieving from thousands of miles away as the family works to bring Dean’s body home. Neely explained that Dean told relatives he planned to go boating with local friends on Sunday evening, though she was not present for that conversation. Though weather conditions were rough that day, Neely said her brother believed the journey would be safe. When Dean failed to return by Monday morning, the family immediately launched a search effort led by their stepfather and other local relatives. By Monday evening, their search ended in grief when Dean’s body was recovered from the waters off Port-de-Paix, in northwestern Haiti, alongside the bodies of other people who had been on the boat.

In the wake of Dean’s death, unfounded rumors spread rapidly across social media, claiming Dean had been shot, killed in a violent incident, or was involved in drug activity. Neely has forcefully refuted all these claims, noting that she personally saw Dean’s body and confirmed he had no gunshot wounds or signs of foul play. The family’s working belief is that Dean drowned in the accident, with only a small bruise on his head consistent with hitting a rock or reef during the capsizing. Neely said the cruel online speculation has left her mother in tears, emphasizing that Dean traveled to Haiti solely for a family vacation, drawn back by his affection for the country.

Described by Neely as a joyful, ambitious, and deeply family-oriented man, Dean worked as a self-employed construction worker and had recently finished building a new home with his wife, who is originally from Abaco. In the days before the trip, he had taken his own children to the beach to build sandcastles and share quality time, always focused on earning enough to give his family a stable, comfortable life.

As of Tuesday, the family was still attempting to arrange their return to The Bahamas, but told reporters all available flights were fully booked. They will continue coordinating with Haitian authorities to process Dean’s death and facilitate the repatriation of his body. Bahamian officials have also stepped in to support the family: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that embassy staff will maintain constant contact with both Dean’s relatives and Haitian law enforcement as the investigation moves forward. Local political representative North Eleuthera MP Sylvanus Petty was among the dozens of people who shared public condolences for the family following news of Dean’s death, in an outpouring of support that has spread across Bahamian social media.

A weeks-long downtown power outage in Nassau has triggered an unprecedented disruption to the Bahamas’ judicial system, forcing the Supreme Court to shut its doors entirely and drawing sharp criticism from the country’s top legal body over persistent infrastructure failures and poor public communication.

What began as a localized power interruption on Friday afternoon rapidly escalated into a full-blown crisis for the judiciary. According to a senior court official, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) provided no advance or ongoing updates about the outage after power cut out around 4pm Friday. Left with no information about when service would resume, court administrators opted to keep the facility’s backup generators running nonstop through the weekend, assuming the issue would be resolved quickly. By Monday morning, the generators had completely exhausted their fuel supply.

After officials paid out of pocket for emergency refueling—an unbudgeted expense not accounted for in the judiciary’s annual operating plan—one of the court’s primary generator units suffered permanent damage to its seals from the continuous operation. The unit repeatedly failed on Monday, forcing court administrators to order a full shutdown of the Supreme Court while technicians waited for the system to cool to complete repairs.

The closure has upended a tightly scheduled judicial calendar, where most hearing dates are locked in six to 12 months in advance. For the Bahamas Bar Association, the disruption amounts to a direct attack on citizens’ constitutional rights to timely justice. In a scathing statement, the association condemned both BPL and relevant government authorities for their failure to maintain consistent communication with the judiciary throughout the outage.

“When the doors of the Courts cannot open, the rights of citizens to be heard, to have their liberty preserved or vindicated, and to have their disputes resolved in a timely manner are placed in jeopardy,” the association said, adding that the lack of advance warning left the judiciary unable to put contingency plans in place, leaving litigants, witnesses, and legal professionals stranded without information. “This is unacceptable.”

Attorney General Wayne Munroe acknowledged that any loss of court time poses a significant concern for the justice system, though he noted that backup generators are not designed to operate 24 hours a day continuously. “Anything that causes loss of any court time clearly is something that is not useful,” he said.

The outage’s ripple effects extended far beyond the Supreme Court. The nearby Industrial Tribunal also lost power on Monday, with a senior official confirming that the outage brought all proceedings to a halt. Without electricity, the tribunal could not operate its computers, cooling systems, or even running water. The official added that the facility has struggled with longstanding infrastructure issues, including an elevator that has been out of service for months, persistent mould growth, and extreme overheating during summer months. Despite these challenges, the official stressed that the tribunal has no backlog of cases and has stayed ahead of its scheduling.

Downtown businesses have also absorbed thousands of dollars in unexpected costs to stay operational. Allen Williams, manager of the popular downtown eatery Cafe Matisse, told reporters that his establishment has kept its generator running nonstop since Friday afternoon to preserve thousands of dollars worth of perishable food inventory. He estimated the business has already spent around $1,000 on extra fuel, and like court officials, he received no direct updates from BPL about the outage or restoration timeline. “Long as they down, we burning fuel,” Williams said. “Very expensive.”

In a statement released Monday, BPL blamed the Bank Lane area outage on a cable fault near Rawson Square that was identified by Bahamas Grid Company (BGC) technicians around 2:30am Tuesday. The utility said crews from BPL and BGC were working together to complete repairs and expected power to be fully restored by 1am Wednesday. However, the statement did not address the loss of power reported by multiple downtown stakeholders that began as early as Friday afternoon.

The outage is the latest in a string of high-profile failures for BPL that have rocked the Bahamas this summer. Less than two weeks ago, a transformer explosion at Blue Hills triggered a seven-hour-long island-wide blackout across New Providence, affecting most residents on the island. Just days later, western New Providence communities endured five consecutive days of rolling outages, forcing some residents to sleep in their cars for cool air, throw out entire refrigerators full of spoiled food, and spend hundreds of dollars on generator fuel. Outages have continued in recent days and spread to some of the country’s Family Islands as well.
BPL has attributed the recent spate of outages to a combination of factors, including physical cable faults, overloaded transformers, tripped feeders and breakers, damaged power lines, small infrastructure fires, and unusually high summer energy demand that has pushed the grid beyond its designed capacity. Last week, BPL Chief Operating Officer Anthony Christie acknowledged that the country’s power grid is under severe strain, with many key circuits and transformers operating at or near maximum capacity.

In a separate clarification, Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles noted that the ongoing closure of sections of Central Police Station is unrelated to the power outage, and is instead the result of planned extensive renovations. Members of the public seeking to file police reports during the renovations are directed to use facilities at the Tourism Police Unit on Parliament Street and the downtown wharf.