Navy rescues Briton trapped in hurricane
Trapped woman saved by sailors, as survivors tell of looting and bodies in the streets of battered Bahamas
A British citizen who had been trapped for days on Abaco, the Bahamian island worst hit by Hurricane Dorian, has been rescued by the Royal Navy. The woman was taken on board RFA Mounts Bay and airlifted to a hospital in Nassau. There were reports of looting last night as the UN said 76,000 people needed help after the most damaging storm to hit the Bahamas.
‘The morgue is full and there are bodies floating in the water. A friend of mine bumped into the body of a woman just floating in the streets’
A BRITISH citizen who had been trapped beneath rubble for days on one of the Bahamian islands worst hit by Hurricane Dorian has been rescued by the Royal Navy, it emerged last night.
The unnamed woman was taken on board the RFA Mounts Bay before being airlifted to hospital in Nassau, the capital of the island nation, where she was receiving treatment last night.
She was one of thousands of people awaiting rescue on the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, which have been largely demolished by Dorian. The death toll last night stood at 20, but it is feared it will rise.
Distraught survivors described the horror of crossing unattended corpses as they made their way to safety.
Ronnie Archer, 71, said many more of the hurricane’s victims lay in the streets of Marsh Harbour, Abaco, while looters were raiding shops for food and water.
“The morgue is full and there are bodies floating in the water,” she said after being evacuated. “A friend of mine bumped into the body of a woman just floating in the street.
“There is a lot of looting happening. There are people taking rice, juice, everything they can get their hands on. I don’t know if they are armed.”
She was at her home of 30 years when the wind started to get stronger and stronger.
“I sat in the wheelchair and I watched my house drop to pieces,” she said. “I heard a bang and saw that the windows had blown in from the force. The next time I looked up, I saw the sky and I realised that the roof had gone.”
Her family, including a sevenmonth-old granddaughter, are staying behind to see what they can save as officials confirmed reports of rampant looting.
The RFA Mounts Bay crew, which have been stationed in the Caribbean since June in preparation for hurricane season, have so far delivered shelter kits, ration packs and water.
The Royal Navy said its Wildcat helicopter also rescued an American woman along with her two children and a baby. They were taken to Nassau. The Wildcat will also be airlifting relief to outlying communities. It is working alongside the Royal Bahamian defence force and is stationed off of Abaco.
The UN estimates more than 76,000 people were in need of humanitarian relief. Aerial footage of Abaco in the northern Bahamas showed widespread devastation, with the harbour, businesses, a hospital and airport landing strips damaged or decimated, frustrating rescue efforts. Gaylele Laing broke down in tears and embraced her niece after she was rescued from Abaco yesterday. As a diabetic who had run out of medicine, she was given a priority rescue, but she was barely able to speak as she revealed that she had to leave her family members, including her grandchildren aged 11 and 12 behind.
The Treasure Quay resident said through tears: “There is total devastation, there is nothing left. We hid in the bathroom as the eye of the storm passed and then the water surge came.
“We never expected it to be that bad. We had to break the window and swim to safety. The whole family, the kids included.”
Dorian continued to cause substantial damage as it hit the US coastal states of South and North Carolina yesterday, leaving 239,000 homes and businesses without power.
The US national hurricane centre warned it remained a category 2 hurricane with winds reaching 110mph and the risk of life-threatening storm surges, winds and flash flooding.