So, tonight, most of us in most of the country can be thankful that Nana did almost "nada". There were no lives lost, no injuries reported, and only minor property damage in the affected villages.
But that account of the storm misses out a huge part of the story; and that's Nana's banana drama.
Small as it was - maybe only 10 miles wide - the Nana created a huge and costly footprint of damage at four bananas farms in the South Stann Creek area. These are farms owned by Tony and Eugene Zabaneh and they account for a major portion of the industry's output.
This evening Eugene Zabaneh told us that the total crop on all four farms - meaning all the fruit - has been lost. He says that sets them back about three months with production, and the monetary value of this loss is about 10 million dollars in just fruit.
But that's just half the story because, 60% of all the trees on these farms were also destroyed. Those now have to be replanted, and to regrow them will take 9 months. He says that rehabilitation process is another 10 million dollars - bringing the total storm related loss in this industry to 20 million dollars.
And, Zabaneh says that it wasn't the hurricane, but a powerful freak thunder storm that came behind it at 12:15 am which laid waste to the farms. Those farms are right beside the Sanctuary Bay property - and Zabaneh says that for 15 minutes, the freak storm, with 60 mile an hour winds just smothered the farms, and then dissipated. When it was done, 60% of the total acreage had been destroyed.
He said these losses will reduce the industry wide output by about 20%.
