After several days of being under threat from Tropical Storm Isaac, residents in the Central and Southeast Bahamas are now breathing a sigh of relief after all warnings were lifted and the entire country was given the all clear.

Isaac is moving across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become a hurricane later today or early tomorrow.

Since first developing in the Leeward Islands last Monday, forecast models continued to project that Isaac’s track would lead it directly over the islands of the Southeast Bahamas; however, yesterday, all watches and warnings for The Bahamas were discontinued.

Inagua, which was under a tropical storm watch since last Thursday, received minimal rain over the weekend from the effects of Isaac.

George Harris, general manager of Coast FM in Inagua told the Journal yesterday that things were back to normal on the island and overall Inagua had fared well.

“The weather was not too threatening around Mathew Town, Inagua,” Mr. Harris said. “The nearest the storm would have come to us was 105 miles east southeast.”

Mr. Harris said that on Saturday there was a power outage, but he noted that by Saturday evening power had been restored to most customers.

Other islands in the Central and Southeast Bahamas gave matching accounts about Isaac’s impact.

Mario Virgil, a council member in Acklins said that there the effects from the tropical storm were minimal and he reported that there no damages to property or disruption of utilities as a result of the storm.

“Everyone here is in good shape and it really does not appear as though there was even a storm here in Acklins,” Mr. Virgil said. “We had very little rain on Saturday and today [Sunday] it is sunny and bright and the weather is fine.”

Last year, Acklins was among the islands hardest hit by Hurricane Irene which swept through the Central and Southeast Bahamas leaving in its wake a path of destruction.

Meanwhile, the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) announced Sunday that its command centre opened Saturday morning and was able to identify two minor issues related to the storm.
The company reported that there was a commercial power outage in Kemp’s Bay on Saturday which resulted in a loss of supply to 75 customers.
BTC said there was also an outage in cell phone service in Ragged Island, due to a power failure that has since been resolved.
Officials at the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) have also reported that operations have resumed since being suspended late Sunday night.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which partially activated its operations last week is expected to provide a detailed assessment of Isaac’s impact sometime today.