The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
EVACUATION EFFORTS INTENSIFY IN BAHAMAS
Bahamian security forces and private craft lead evacuations from devastation.
Search and rescue teams are still trying to reach some Bahamian communities isolated by floodwaters and debris after Hurricane Dorian, while the official death toll has risen to 43 and is likely to increase even more, top officials said.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said late Friday 35 were known dead on Abaco Island and eight in Grand Bahama.
“We acknowledge that there are many missing and that the number
of deaths is expected to significantly increase,” he said. “This is one of the stark realities we are facing in this hour of darkness.”
On Saturday morning, several hundred people, many of them Haitian immigrants, waited at Abaco’s Marsh Harbour in hopes of leaving the disaster zone on vessels arriving with aid. Bahamian security forces were organizing evacuations on a landing craft. Other boats, including yachts and other private craft, were also helping to evacuate people.
Avery Parotti, a 19-year-old bartender, and partner Stephen Chidles, a 26-year-old gas station attendant, had been waiting at the port since 1 a.m. During the hurricane, waves lifted a yacht that smashed against a cement wall, which in turn collapsed on their home and destroyed it.
“There’s nothing left here. There are no jobs,” said Parotti, who hopes to start a new life in the United States, where she has relatives.
Security Minister Marvin Dames said authorities were striving to reach everyone, but the crews can’t just bulldoze their way through fallen trees and other rubble because there might be bodies not yet recovered.
“We have been through this before, but not at this level of devastation,” Dames said.