The gentleman – who wishes to remain anonymous and wants the focus to be kept on helping those in need – made his mega-purchase at a Costco in Jacksonville, Florida, on September 4.
At $450-per-generator, the shopper amassed a bill of $49,285.70 at the checkout, and it’s all heading straight to the Bahamian islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco by boat.
The unnamed farmer from Jacksonville told CNN:
About 100 generators and a truck load of food and chainsaws are all going over by boat on Thursday [September 5] to Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas. It’s terrible and I’m sure you’ve seen the photos,
It’s important that we help each other out. It’s better than just sitting there. You see a need and you fill it.
The Category 5 beast is the strongest storm to make landfall in the country, causing ‘generational devastation’ to entire neighbourhoods.
It’s already carrying a heavy toll, taking the lives of 20 people so far. However, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said: ‘We expect that this number will increase.’
Despite the man wanting his good deed to remain discreet, a fellow customer, Alex Sprague, noticed his actions. He wrote online: ‘All I could do was shake his hand and thank him! There still are good people in the world!’
In order to transport the generators and other amenities to the Bahamas, trucks will drive the supplies to Stuart, Florida, about 250 miles south. The farmer said he has a storage facility set up there so the items could then be transported to the Bahamas by boat.
Errol Thurston runs a guide service in Marsh Harbour, a town in the Abaco Islands. A local Bahamian and longtime friend of the farmer since the 2000s, he’s a key cog in the machine behind the plan.
Thurston, whose hometown was destroyed by the hurricane, left the island to take a client’s boat to safety in Florida days before the storm. He’s with his wife, Mercedes, who lives and works in Florida as a dean at a high school.