Rescuers preparing to go into hard-hit areas of Bahamas after historic destruction
As the US gets lashed by Hurricane Dorian, heartbreaking stories are emerging from the Bahamas, which has been decimated.
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Horrifying stories are emerging in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, as the dangerous storm lashes the coasts of the US states of Georgia and South Carolina.
Survivors have thronged rescue helicopters as the official death toll from the category 5 storm rose to 20.
“We expect that this number will increase,” Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told a news conference, as the scope of the destruction and humanitarian crisis was still coming into focus.
He 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 defence force officers.
President Donald Trump spoke by telephone to the Bahamian leader and pledged US assistance, the White House said.
“A big section of the Bahamas was hit like few people have seen before,” Trump said.
“They need a big hand.”
US Coast Guard and Royal Navy helicopters were conducting medical evacuations, aerial assessments to help co-ordinate relief efforts, and reconnaissance flights to assess damage.
People on Grand Bahama island were using jet skis and boats to pluck victims from homes flooded and pulverised by heavy rain and lashing winds from the monster storm.
Aerial video of the worst-hit Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas showed widespread devastation, with the harbour, shops and workplaces, a hospital, and airport landing strips damaged or blown to pieces, all of which is frustrating rescue efforts.
Mark Lowcock, United Nations under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said that around 70,000 people needed food, shelter and medical assistance.
“There is concern that some whole communities’ locations have been destroyed or are underwater or washed away,” he said.
“One of the uncertainties is where the people who were living there are now and how to reach them.”
“Speed is of the essence,” Red Cross official Stephen McAndrew said of rescue operations.
Dozens of people in the Bahamas, with a population of about 400,000, took to Facebook seeking information about missing loved ones. One aid worker described an apocalyptic level of destruction on Great Abaco Island.
LaQuez Williams, pastor at Jubilee Cathedral in Grand Bahama, who opened the church as a shelter for about 150 people, said he saw people on their rooftops seeking refuge.
“They were calling for help, but you could not go out to reach,” Williams said.
“It was very difficult because you felt helpless.”
A Reuters photographer surveying the damage on Grand Bahama island said many hangers at Freeport airport and several aircraft appeared to be severely damaged.
With many telephones down on Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, residents posted lists of missing loved ones on social media sites.
A single Facebook post by media outlet Our News Bahamas seeking the names of missing people had 2000 comments listing lost family members since it went live on Tuesday, although some of the comments were also about loved ones being found.
A massive relief effort was under way with volunteers ferrying supplies to the islands in a flotilla of small boats.
As many as 13,000 homes in the Bahamas may have been destroyed or severely damaged, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
Emergency workers had yet to reach some stricken areas.
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“Right now there are just a lot of unknowns,” parliament member Iram Lewis said.
“We need help.”
The storm parked over the Bahamas and pounded it for over a day and a half with winds up to 295km/h and torrential rains.
National Security Minister Marvin Dames said rescue teams were fanning out as the winds and rain subsided, with more than 600 police officers and marines in Grand Bahama and 100 in Abaco.
“The devastation is unlike anything that we’ve ever seen before,” he said.
“We’re beginning to get on the ground, get our people in the right places. We have a lot of work in the days and weeks and months ahead.”
Health Minister Duane Sands said the government was airlifting 25 doctors, nurses and other health workers to Abaco and hoped to bring in mental health workers soon.
“The situation is under control in Abaco,” he said.
UN and Red Cross officials said tens of thousands of people will need food and clean drinking water.
“It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic,” said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a hurricane relief group and flew over Abaco.
“It’s not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again.” She said her representative on Abaco told her there were “a lot more dead.”
HURRICANE DORIAN THREATENS GEORGIA, CAROLINAS
As rescue efforts ramped up, Dorian crept back to a strong Category 3 hurricane threatening the US east coast states of Georgia and South and North Carolina but leaving Florida largely unscathed.
“We got lucky in Florida, very, very lucky indeed,” Trump said.
Dorian still boasts dangerously high winds of 85km/h.
In South Carolina, more than 1500 people have sought refuge in 28 shelters as authorities worried about the historic and vulnerable port city of Charleston.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center predicted the Carolinas could be hit with dangerous storm surge of up to eight feet (2.4 meters) and six to 12 inches of rain.
“We are very well prepared,” Trump said.
Larry Lewis, who runs Paradise Watersports in the city of Freeport on Grand Bahama, said most of the flood waters had receded but some roads remained impassable.
“Everybody is trying to do their best,” Lewis told AFP by telephone.
He said very few stores were open.
“I saw a lot of people scrapping for something to eat,” he said.
Roberto Smith, who was born in Abaco but now lives in Florida, said he was worried about his family.
“I spoke to my dad on the night of the hurricane, on Sunday night, and his roof blew up,” Smith told AFP.
“I haven’t spoken to him since then. I am really worried. I can’t even eat.”
“The island is devastated,” he added.
“There is no power, no running water, no electricity.”
There are fears sea turtle nests along many of Florida’s beaches are in danger of being washed out to sea.
Volusia County’s seat turtle habitat conservation plan manager Jennifer Winters told the Orlando Sentinel “there’s not a lot” that can be done.
She said once eggs get pulled from the sand, “they’re not going to make it.”
On Friday, 397 sea turtle nests were recorded on the area’s beaches. Since Saturday, 40 nests were washed out and more are expected as Dorian passed by, she said.
Meanwhile two other named storms are blowing in the Atlantic region.
Tropical Storm Fernand hit land along a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s upper Gulf coast and quickly dissipated on Wednesday local time, though forecasters said it could still cause flooding.
Tropical Storm Gabrielle, is far out in the Atlantic Ocean and poses no threat to land. It is expected to remain a tropical storm on a track far from North America.
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