By TIMOTHY SCHWAB

According to meterological data collected by the website hurricanecity.com, Grand Bahama is the second most frequently hurricane-hit land mass in the world, following Grand Cayman. Since 1871, Grand Bahama has weathered a hurricane on average once every 2.45 years, and Andros, Abaco and Bimini are close behind in the top 10 list.

Hurricanes are a reality in the Bahamas, and so, too, are increasingly expensive premiums for hurricane insurance. Since 2004, insurance rates in Grand Bahama have jumped 20-40 percent, according to several insurance providers. The cost of hurricane insurance, according to Patrick Ward, CEO of Bahamas First General Insurance, has a lot to do with the cost of reinsurance—insurance for insurance companies. Each year reinsurers put up billions of dollars in capital in a gamble against the likelihood of a catastrophe, and when disaster strikes, they pay dearly. The estimated $50 billion in insurance claims that Hurricane Katrina provoked last year was a gamble reinsurers lost-that everyone lost, really.

Because reinsurance operates on a global level against catastrophe, a disaster in a different part of the world—like 9/11 in New York or Katrina in New Orleans—can increase the cost of reinsurance for insurance companies everywhere else in the world.

This year, following Katrina, the cost of reinsurance has raised the cost of insurance by more than 100 percent in some parts of the United States, and Ward said the Bahamas may still be seeing the effects of Katrina in the cost of their premiums next year.

Even more startling than increasing rates, some homeowners simply can't get insurance anymore, for any price. When the next hurricane hits, the only safety net they will have is their savings; this is happening up and down the Atlantic Coast of the United States, and it is beginning to happen in the Bahamas.

Following the 2004 hurricane, Debbie Reynolds bought a small, delapidated one-storey house in Queens Cove, hoping she and her husband could fix it and resell it for a quick profit. But the house has been on the market for more than a year and interest has been scarce. Because banks only extend mortgages on a property if it is insured, would-be buyers of Reynolds' house would have to have in their hands the nearly $80,000 asking price. And Reynolds isn't the only homeowner in Queens Cove who is stuck. The house just next door to Reynolds' house, another, similar one-storey house, is also for sale, perhaps terminally.

Queens Cove, which suffered extensive flooding damage in Hurricanes Floyd, Frances and Jeanne, is one of the few places in Grand Bahama where hurricane insurance is not widely available. This community of about a 75 homes, ranging from inexpensive apartments to spacious, seaside mansions, is home to many longtime residents, like the Rose brothers, second-generation homeowners in Queens Cove.

Bobby Rose's one-storey home was demolished in the 2004 hurricanes. He said his home looked like a launching pad when he first returned, with most of his kitchen backed up on his deck. Unfortunately, his insurer refused to budge on the low settlement they were offering, Rose said, and after six months of being "nickel and dimed", he finally accepted the offer.

Rose attempted to get a loan from a bank to supplement the insufficient insurance settlement he said he was awarded, but no bank would finance his rebuilding because his property was ineligible for insurance. Finally he negotiated a government-guaranteed loan, which still required him to take out a life insurance policy that cost $4,000, collateral in case he died before the loan was paid.

Rose's family, who rented a home for nearly two years, only recently moved back to Queens Cove, hoping this time their house is impervious to the flooding that once wrecked it. Like an increasing number of homes being built and rebuilt in Queens Cove, Rose's new home was build on top of his old home. With the ground floor almost completely empty, Rose's family now lives on the second storey, 15 feet above ground and, they hope, safe from flooding. Even still, they can't get hurricane insurance, not even against wind and rain.

Rose's brother, David Rose, has repaired and maintained his one-storey home through several hurricanes, and said he has been satisfied with his insurance settlements. He only shrugs at the fact that he can now only get fire and theft insurance on his home. "If a storm comes, I guess I'm going to have to burn my house down," Rose said, joking.

But David Rose has a bigger dilemma on his mind, which is why flooding in Queens Cove has been so severe in recent years. In previous decades, many residents say, flooding had been a problem in the area, but not as frequently or to the same levels it has recently.

Residents say the reason for the increasingly bad flooding in the last decade is that the Southern end of the Hawksbill Creek, near the power plant, has been "dammed" with a pile of rocks they say have slowly accumulated over the years from the dredging of the Freeport Harbour.

A comparison between historic and current maps reveal that where there once was a small island, Billy Cay, in Hawksbill Creek, there is now a significantly larger land mass consuming most of the width of the waterway.

The Hawksbill Creek that Rose said he swam and fished in as a child, "from one end to the other," now can be traversed at low-tide without getting your feet wet, Rose and another resident said. Before the rock deposit was there, Rose said, hurricanes from the North used to push water from the North Shore of Grand Bahama into the Hawksbill Creek, which would flood over the Fishing Hole Road, and then empty out on the Southern Coast of the island. Residents say that flood waters now have to contend with the rock deposit that is more than 20 feet high.

Residents of Queens Cove have been complaining about the blockage on and off for more than a decade, but since 2004, their complaints have reached new heights. Organizing as a homeowners' association, the group has been aggressively lobbying the government, the Port Authority, Bahama Rock—anybody they could talk to—to look at the water flow in the Hawksbill Creek.

Walt Reed, manager of Bahama Rock, denied responsibility for the rocks and suggested it was the Port Authority's responsibility. Neither the Port Authority nor the Freeport Harbour would claim responsibility.

Raymond Jones, Chief Operations Manager for the Harbour, even questioned the existence of the blockage. Jones, maintains that during floods water is able to move without obstruction down the Hawksbill Creek from the North shore to the South shore. "It's the sheer volume of water" involved in a hurricane that is responsible for the flooding in Queens Cove, he said.

Rose admits that water is able to flow through the Hawksbill Creek, but in a severely compromised way because of what he describes as a bottle-necking effect at the site of the rocks. "If you take a creek from 1,500, 2,000 feet wide down to 150 feet, you can't expect it to flow like it used to," Rose said.

David Rose said though he initially blamed Bahama Rock for the deposit, he now holds the Port Authority responsible because it was in charge of dredging the Freeport Harbour. The Port Authority has not claimed responsibility.

In a presentation to Parliament that Minister of Works Bradley Roberts made last week, he announced a $250,000 study currently under way that will investigate the possible causes and solutions to the flooding of Hawksbill Creek, specifically as it affects the Fishing Hole Road. Included in this study will be a determination of "the impact of the burm created by Bahama Rock on the communities of Freeport and West Grand Bahama during flooding conditions."

Queens Cove residents say in their two years of complaining about the rocks they have been shuffled from one entity to the other, none of which claim responsibility for the "burm." Residents haven't given up the fight, but they have divided their attentions with preparing their homes for the next hurricane, which they will face without the safety net of hurricane insurance. George Bellot has put a sign reading "Hurricane Hole" at the entrance to his home and last week installed a winch on his second floor balcony, which he says he'll use to haul all of his things to the second floor in the case of a hurricane. Through all of the hurricanes, Bellot never had insurance, and has paid all of his damages out of pocket.

Self-insurance is now the only option available to most residents of Queens Cove. Resident Annie Roberts said she's "learned to be a good saver."

Charles Darville attempted to self-insure himself following Hurricane Floyd, after he felt his insurance company severely short-changed his policy. But he had not saved as diligently as he needed to for the massive damages around the corner. Five years later, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne "caught us with our pants down," Darville said.

His home, which at one time had a market value of more than $300,000, was briefly on the market but received only one offer, for about a quarter the home's value.

Jim Neill lost his home in the hurricanes of 1999 and 2004, and said his plan is to count his losses on Queens Cove and move out. "A house that was previously worth $250,000," Neill lamented, "is now worthless." His plan is rent his property or issue his own mortgage on his property by allowing the buyer to make payments directly to him.

Neill said he'd like the government to offer flood and hurricane insurance to Queens Cove, similar to how the Florida state government offers insurance to communities that private insurers won't carry.

IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE — Queens Cove resident David Rose gestures to an area of Hawksbill Creek that he says has been blocked with rocks, causing increased flooding in his community. Flood damage in Queens Cove was so severe in recent hurricanes that insurance companies have deemed the area uninsurable. (Photo by JENNEVA RUSSELL)