Members of the Canadian Burnaby Firefighters Search & Rescue Task Force search for victims after Hurricane Dorian hit the Abaco Islands in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, September 11, 2019. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told the nation in a televised address that the death toll from Dorian remained at 50, but conceded that the large number of people missing meant that number would rise.
Emergency management officials told a separate news conference that the list of missing had not yet been checked against records of evacuees or the thousands of people staying in shelters.
“My friends are missing, a few of my cousins are missing over there, five in total, they lived in Marsh Harbour,” said Clara Bain, a 38-year-old tour guide, referring to the Abaco town where officials estimate that 90% of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed.
“Everyone on the islands are missing someone, it’s really devastating,” she said.
Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sept. 1 as a Category 5 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record to make a direct hit on land and packing top sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (298 kph).
More than 5,000 people evacuated to New Providence, the island where the capital, Nassau, is located, in the face of the worst hurricane in the country’s history. But there has since been a significant reduction in the number now asking to be relocated, according to emergency management officials.
Some 15,000 people are still in need of shelter or food, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.
Officials have already put up large tents in Nassau to house those made homeless by the storm and plan to erect tent cities on Abaco capable of sheltering up to 4,000 people.
Minnis thanked U.S. President Donald Trump and the American people for mobilizing support and urged Bahamians to pitch in with relief efforts by volunteering or donating money to legitimate charities.
The status would have allowed Bahamians to live and work in the United States while their country recovers.
Private forecasters estimated that Dorian destroyed or damaged some $3 billion in insured property in the Bahamas or elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Commercial flights to Abaco, one of the hardest-hit areas, resumed on a limited basis on Wednesday.
Comments
The tragedy unfolds !
Bahamas is a tax haven for the “idle rich”
corporate USA/UK et al
Not unlike Channel Islands Gibraltar et al
Haven also for guns and drug dealers !
For those who believe in karma
it’s pay back time !
Godly retribution !
My sympathy to the poorer
Bahamians who suffered loss of loved
ones. The rich can fly the nest the poor
chicks suffer in nest.
Let’s hope the Guyana government act
quickly and welcome these suffering victims
of nature aka Godzilla !
With global warming and rising sea levels
doubt if the smaller island will be occupied/habitable. Some of the
pictures showed 20’ higher sea levels!
Tsunamis?
Kamtan
DORIAN WATCH
Now Dorian comes with all her fuss and fright
Splash and swirl in Category 5 storm;
High and mighty with white waves, out the light
While Bahamians scream, and so conform.
Iconoclastic wind rush heaves and snarls
Tearing homes beyond chance reparation;
Dorian like voodoo dance rehearsals
Moans and groans in scavenging gestation.
And with scare of death and dying they watch
In mournful emanation wandering
Haitian dwellers, Bahamians in the catch
Mudd gone, all they know, Mudd not returning.
In the aftermath, faith for the living
Opens new world to aid survival batch.
‘Bodies everywhere’: Harrowing account of Bahamas after Dorian
FOX News Report – Published September 6, 2019
Dead bodies are visible in the rubble days after Hurricane Dorian swept ashore as a Category 5 storm, reports Steve Harrigan. #ShepSmith #FoxNews
Where was all the rich Bahamians when
the poor people needed help !
On their private jets to de fatherland
…USA.
Sick lot !
Kamtan