A HAPPY LANDING
Heli duo finds 40 Bahamas survivors
An American chopper pilot aiding rescue efforts in the storm-ravaged Bahamas unexpectedly discovered up to 40 people still alive among the ruins two weeks after Hurricane Dorian pummeled the islands.
Justin Johnson was volunteering with the MEDIC Corps when he made the near-miraculous find Friday on Little Abaco Island, among the hardest-hit sites.
His wife, Angela BartlettJohnson, wrote on Twitter that they stumbled onto the weary survivors by chance after passenger and News4Jax reporter Vic Micolucci suggested they go in for a closer look near the devastated village of Fox Town.
“On the next run Justin made, he felt an urge to fly a little closer and even sit down on the ground to check out Vic’s suspicions,” wrote Bartlett-Johnson, a nurse who, with her husband, owns Timberview Helicopters in Destin, Fla.
“Somewhere near 30-40 people began climbing out of overturned vehicles and rubble that they were taking shelter in to run to him for help.”
The gleeful survivors were “dancing, hands raised up to the heavens,” she told NBC News.
The helicopter brought food, water, tarps and other supplies, she said.
It wasn’t the couple’s only heroic act. They also found three young sisters separated from their parents by a washed-out bridge, and flew the girls to their grandparents’ house.
The survivors stranded in Fox Town were in desperate need of supplies and support, MEDIC Corps, an Arizona disaster-relief nonprofit, said.
The Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island were the hardest hit when Dorian struck the archipelago on Sept. 1 as a Category 5 hurricane.
The monster storm sat over the islands for two days, battering them with gusts of more than 220 mph and storm surges that topped 20 feet.
The official death toll remains at 50, but officials expect the number to rise.
As many as 2,500 people have been reported missing.
Relief and rescue efforts were halted on Saturday when Tropical Storm Humberto passed over the islands, but work was resumed on Sunday.