Dorian leaves trail of death and destruction in Bahamas
Relief officials have reported scenes of utter ruin in parts of the Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis after Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands.
At least seven deaths were reported, but the full scope of the disaster is still unknown.
The storm’s punishing winds and muddy brown floodwaters destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes, crippled hospitals and trapped people in attics.
“It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic,” said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief organisation and flew over the Bahamas’ hard-hit Abaco Islands. “It’s not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again.”
She said her representative on Abaco told her that there were “a lot more dead” and that the bodies were being gathered.
The Prime Minister, Hubert Minnis, also expected more deaths and predicted that rebuilding would require “a massive, co-ordinated effort”.
Emergency authorities struggled to reach victims and urged people to hang on.
“We don’t want people thinking we’ve forgotten them. We know what your conditions are,” Tammy Mitchell of the Bahamas’ National Emergency Management Agency told ZNS Bahamas radio station.
Rescuers began evacuating people from the storm’s aftermath across Grand Bahama yesterday, using jetskis, boats and even a huge bulldozer that cradled children and adults in its digger.
Practically parking over a portion of the Bahamas for a day and a half, Dorian pounded the northern Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama with winds up to 295km/h and torrential rain before finally moving into open waters yesterday on a course for Florida. Its winds were down to a stilldangerous 175km/h, making it a Category 2 storm.
More than 2 million people along the coast in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were warned to evacuate. Although the threat of a direct hit on Florida had all but evaporated, Dorian was expected to pass dangerously close to Georgia and South Carolina — and perhaps strike North Carolina — tomorrow or Saturday.
Even if landfall does not occur, the system is likely to cause storm surge and severe flooding, the US National Hurricane Centre said.