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Volume: 122 No. 234, Wednesday, October 29, 2025
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HUNDREDS FLEE FROM STORM Some residents tell of confusion and delays in evacuation By KEILE CAMPBELL Tribune Staff Reporter kcampbell@tribunemedia.net CONFUSION and exhaustion swept through the southern islands yesterday as hundreds of residents tried to flee the path of Hurricane Melissa in what officials described as the biggest pre-event evacuation in Bahamian history. On Mayaguana and Crooked Island, stranded evacuees complained of being locked out of airport terminals for hours without food, water, or bathrooms. Some elderly residents reportedly relieved themselves in bushes as they waited to board flights. Melissa — a dangerous storm
that slammed Jamaica on Tuesday before turning toward Cuba and The Bahamas — was forecast to reach Bahamian waters late yesterday into today as a formidable Category Two or Three system. Videos and voice notes flooded social media yesterday morning, showing distressed islanders packed at airfields and begging for information about when they would be transported. Utica Laurel Lightbourne, a resident of Abraham’s Bay, Mayaguana, said residents were told to gather at 7am at the new airport terminal built by the I-Group but were locked outside. STORM SEE PAGES TWO AND THREE
EVACUEE Daniel Johnson is welcomed by Mykea Johnson after arriving in New Providence from Acklins yesterday. Photo: Chappell Whyms Jr
RBDF OFFICERS SENT TO INAGUA COMPLAIN - CHIEF SAYS ‘STUPID’ By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS Tribune Staff Reporter lmunnings@tribunemedia.net AS Hurricane Melissa barrels toward the south-eastern Bahamas, Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) officers ordered to stay behind in Inagua say they are being left to “ride out the storm” in unsafe and inadequate conditions — claims Commodore Floyd Moxey has strongly rejected as false and “stupid”. RBDF - SEE PAGE THREE
ANGER OVER FUNDS FOR WEDDING DPP DEFENDS LACK OF JAIL TIME FOR PARTY - BUT NOT FOR OTHERS RICH BUSINESSMAN By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
THE government’s decision to fund accommodations for some Bahamians who visited Jamaica for a wedding but didn’t leave ahead of Hurricane Melissa’s arrival has triggered anger among some Bahamians, including a grieving family still pleading for help to bring a loved one’s body home from Haiti.
The Davis administration helped with accommodations for some of the 50-strong group, who travelled to Montego Bay for the wedding of the brother of former Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield, but other Bahamians in Jamaica say they received no assistance. One traveller expressed outrage online, saying she and others had to pay their own expenses despite arriving on the same flight. FUNDS - SEE PAGE THREE
Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper
By LEANDRA ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter lrolle@tribunemedia.net DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions Cordell Frazier yesterday pushed back against criticism over the sentence given to a wealthy businessman convicted of firearm offences, insisting that cases are judged on their individual merits, not on a person’s wealth or nationality. GUNS - SEE PAGE SEVEN