By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

Grand Bahama residents are readying themselves for whatever Tropical Storm Ernesto brings their way, stocking up on hurricane supplies and buying stores out of gallons of water.

In fact, residents have made a mad dash for the item, which has become the hottest commodity and folks are being advised to stock up early.

With a tropical warning and hurricane watch remaining in effect for Grand Bahama, Bimini, Andros and the Berry Islands, Grand Bahamians are not taking Ernesto lightly.

Yesterday, Andros, the Berry Islands and Bimini experienced four to six inches of rain as rain bands continued over the northwest Bahamas and the Florida keys.

A better organized Ernesto had formed and forecasters say tornadic activity is possible.

As of 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, the centre of the tropical Storm Ernesto was located 24.3 North, 80.2 West or about 180 miles southwest of Freeport, Grand Bahama.

Residents could expect this morning to be cloudy to overcast with tropical storm conditions with the weather rapidly clearing up by this afternoon.

Maximum sustained winds were still near 45 mph with higher gusts.

Ernesto was expected to continue its path to the northwest and its centre was anticipated to reach the Florida Keys or southeast Florida by Tuesday evening.

Some strengthening was forecasted over the last 12 hours and weather experts say it is possible Ernesto could be near hurricane strength before reaching the Florida peninsula.

As Ernesto makes his trek towards Florida, Grand Bahama residents bought out gallons of water from supermarkets, convenience stores, service marts and water depots.

This meant that the demand was far greater than the ability to supply.

One major supplier, Crown Ice and Refrigeration Limited, experienced what it termed "a periodic lull" in its inventory yesterday.

Manager Roger Charlton explained that because the demand for water is so great, there is no means to house that amount of water because of limited spacing.

The water is moving so fast, on average Crown Ice is selling 360 cases every 45 minutes.

"So there's going to be times when we do not have any here. It's not that we don't have water, it's being produced," he revealed.

In fact, Charlton says the production crew worked until midnight Tuesday.

"It took roughly three hours to get eight hours of production out of our warehouse. So we have a situation where there is such a great demand for the water, its just supply and demand," he said.

"But we never run out of water, it's just getting it from the warehouse — the production facility — here at Crown Ice."

The huge demand is causing a stressful situation, Charlton admits, adding that there was more than enough time for residents to have been prepared before now.

Cognizant that residents do not expect suppliers to run out, the Crown Ice manager points out that if thousands of residents are running after the same items, there are going to be some shortfalls.

"I think that is the problem we have now, we have a very large number of people who did not prepare for the hurricane, who are now rushing last minute and are putting a lot of stress on production," he revealed.

As a means of managing the distribution of the one gallon and five gallon bottled water, the five gallons were shipped to the major suppliers like foodstores and throughout the island.

As for the ice, Charlton says there is still a great supply still left and in fact, he is hoping that they are moved as fast as water sales.

STOCKING UP — Grand Bahama residents are not taking any chances with Tropical Storm Ernesto and made their way to the foodstore downtown yesterday to pick up much- needed items to weather the storm. (Photo by Angelo armbrister)