Experts assess ‘apocalyptic’ Dorian damage

BAHAMAS: Humanitarian officials from UK to consider how to help battered islands

Humanitarian experts from the UK are assessing the damage caused by deadly Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas as they look to provide help to those left devastated by the storm.

At least seven people are reported to have died following what was the most powerful storm on record to hit the islands, with that number expected to rise as relief efforts continue.

Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed when strong winds and rains hit the Abaco and Grand Bahama islands on Sunday, with one local relief worker describing “apocalyptic” scenes during the brutal weather.

Damage was made worse by the fact the hurricane barely moved for almost two days, battering the islands with winds of up to 185mph and torrential rain, before moving away towards Florida on Tuesday.

A team of four experts from the UK arrived in Nassau this week to work alongside the Bahamas Government’s National Emergency Management Association and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

British ship RFA Mounts Bay, which had been stationed in the Caribbean since June in readiness for hurricane season, will also provide help, the Ministry of Defence said.

The Queen said she is “shocked and saddened” to learn of the devastation, as she sent her condolences to Sir Cornelius Smith, governor-general of the Bahamas, on Tuesday.

It is safe to say the Scottish summer of 2019 will not go down in the record books as a season to remember, although warmer and wetter may well be all we have to look forward to if the experts are to be believed.

And if the impact of climate change on these parts is unappealing, spare a thought for residents in areas of the world where more extreme weather events are happening with increasing regularity – and severity.

Humanitarian workers from the UK have arrived in the Bahamas to begin assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record to hit the islands. The death toll is expected to rise well beyond the seven confirmed fatalities at present as relief efforts continue and the scale of the multi-million-dollar clean-up will be dwarfed by the emotional cost to the community.

Here, two new studies are also giving cause for concern. In one, researchers found people who have been affected by floods and storms are much more likely to suffer from mental health problems. The other suggests Britons are failing to grasp the impact humans are having on the planet, underestimating how much the world is heating up, and how much plastic waste is ending up in the environment.

Extreme weather looks set to figure in all of our futures. It is incumbent on those in authority to recognise the harm it will bring – and to find ways to better inform people of the threats, and the steps they can take to protect themselves and the generations to come.

Picture: AP. Julia Aylen wades through waist deep water carrying her pet dog in Freeport, Bahamas.