Search continues

Officials hunt for survivors amid reports of 1,300 missing in Bahamas.

McLEAN’S TOWN, Bahamas — They scan social media, peer under rubble, or try to follow the smell of death in an attempt to find family and friends.

They search amid reports that 1,300 people remain listed as missing two weeks after Hurricane Dorian hit the northern Bahamas.

The government, which has put the official death toll at 50, has cautioned that the list is preliminary and many could be staying in shelters and just haven’t been able to connect with loved ones.

But fears are growing that many more died when the Category 5 storm slammed into the archipelago’s northern region with winds in excess of 185 mph and severe flooding that toppled concrete walls and cracked trees in half as Dorian battered the area for a day and a half.

“If they were staying with me, they would’ve been safe,” Phil Thomas Sr., said as he leaned against the frame of his roofless home in the fishing village of McLean’s Town and looked into the distance.

The boat captain has not seen his 30-year-old son, his two grandsons or his granddaughter since the storm. They were all staying with his daughter-in-law, who was injured and taken to a hospital in the capital, Nassau, after the U.S. Coast Guard found her — but only her.

“People have been looking, but we don’t really come up with anything,” Thomas said.

He especially misses his 8-year-old grandson: “He was my fishing partner. We were close.”

Meanwhile, a newly formed tropical storm headed toward the Bahamas and was expected to further drench the communities bashed by Dorian. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Humberto, which formed late Friday, is expected to hit the central and northwestern Bahamas with wind and heavy rain before moving along the east coast of Florida.

“The disturbance will more than likely take a very similar path to Dorian,” chief meteorologist Shavonne Moxey-Bonamy said.

The approaching storm was slowing down efforts to deliver aid, and food and water remained the biggest needs in the hard-hit Abaco islands, where officials temporarily suspended flights in anticipation of the storm, a spokesman for the islands’ National Emergency Management Agency said.

“Hang in there, we care for you, we will get to you,” spokesman Carl Smith said. “We are doing our best. … We ask people to have patience.”

Prime Minister Hubert Minnis assured Bahamians in a recent televised address that the government was working hard to recover bodies and notify families, adding that officials are providing counseling amid reports of nightmares and psychological trauma.

“The grief is unbearable,” the prime minister said. “Many are in despair, wondering if their loved ones are still alive.”

Still, reunions, although few, are happening two weeks after the storm made landfall Sept. 1.

The family of Trevon Laing had thought the 24-year-old man was dead after a police officer told them that two bodies had been found in the community of Gold Rock Creek, including that of a young man. His mother went into mourning for five days.

When his family visited the community to verify what they were told, Laing wasn’t around, buttressing their fears that he was dead. When he returned, he said, he found his brother crying on the front porch.

“I’m like: ‘Hey, I’m not dead! You guys have no faith in me. I’m a survivor,’” he said, adding with a laugh. “He was shocked and mad at the same time.”