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Grand Bahama, home to Freeport, still being assessed post-hurricane

Grand Bahama, home to Freeport, still being assessed post-hurricane
While most of the Bahamas escaped serious damage from Hurricane Matthew and cruise ships have been calling at Nassau and are returning to the various private islands, an exception is Freeport.

Grand Bahama Island—home to Freeport as well as Grand Bahama Shipyard, the region's most important cruise drydock facility—and Andros Island were the hardest hit during the hurricane, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said Wednesday, according to thebahamasweekly.com.

'Recovery efforts are well under way to restore the communities as well as the tourism product on those islands,' the ministry said, adding that a full report on the extent of the damage will be released this week.

Freeport features on a number of Carnival Cruise Line's near-term short itineraries from Port Canaveral, Jacksonville and Charleston. Carnival said it is still evaluating Freeport's viability post-storm.

Meanwhile, Nassau has been taking cruise ships since Sunday and images in thebahamasweekly.com show plenty of ships in port and passengers strolling, shopping, visiting restaurants and embarking on tours.

See also earlier story, 'What's open, what's not, what's pending: A post-hurricane update on Bahamas, Caribbean ports'