Dorian strengthens to Category 3 storm
NASSAU (AFP) — Hurricane Dorian has claimed at least 20 lives, Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said, warning the storm had caused “generational devastation” as it moved towards the U.S. east coast.
Minnis confirmed the storm’s death toll had risen to at least 20 during a news conference in which he described the unthinkable damage that parts of his island nation had sustained.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Britain’s Royal Navy airlifted survivors and ferried in emergency supplies as floodwaters receded in the Bahamas, while the center of the strengthening storm continued toward South Carolina.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dorian, which has already wrought major damage on its course through the Atlantic, was packing maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour), making it a Category 3 storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.
The United Nations said 70,000 people on Grand Bahama and Abaco islands were in “immediate need” of aid.
Minnis also issued a warning to looters, saying they will be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law” and announced the deployment of additional police and defense force officers.
Shelter, safe drinking water, food and medicine were urgently needed for some 50,000 people on Grand Bahama and between 15,000 and 20,000 on Abaco, U.N. emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock said after a meeting with the PM.
“Speed is of the essence,” Red Cross official Stephen McAndrew said of rescue operations on the two northernmost islands in the Bahamas archipelago which were pummeled by one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record.
Among the many charities deployed, chef Jose Andres and his organization World Central Kitchen are working on the island of Abaco.
“Hopefully I will restore the faith and the soul and the hope of the people one meal at a time,” he said.
People on Grand Bahama were using jet skis and boats to pluck victims from homes flooded and pulverized by heavy rain and lashing winds from the monster storm.