Hurricane Dorian, a Cat 5 Hurricane, made landfall Labor Day, Monday Sept 1, 2019 at Marsh Harbour, the Abaco Islands commercial hub and the Bahamas third-largest city. It then moved on to Grand Bahama, just east of Freeport, the 2nd city in the commonwealth. Here it sat for another 24 hours resulting in the SHUTTING DOWN ALL OF ABACO. Luckily the Treasure Cay Airport was not under water which would turn out to be vital in relief efforts. (the islands primary airport at Marsh Harbour Airport runways would remain under water for a week)

AbacoEscape.com, started emailing on a regular basis, offers of free advertising to the many vendors who have advertised with us over the years and also to some who have not. Their banner ad on our pages will also serve to notify visitors that the vendor is, or is soon to be, open for business. That was a slow process.

As recovery began, in early 2020, along came the Wuhan Virus, AKA COVID-19 to this archipelago. Some say it arrived via the numerous Chinese now resident in the Bahamas for their construction projects. Some say it arrived via the Americans and Canadians who flocked to Abaco to help in the massive cleanup from Dorian.

For all practical purposes Abaco remained closed to tourism until spring 2021