The latest provisional death toll for Hurricane Dorian is 43 in the Bahamas. A balance sheet that should be revised upwards.
Proved, fleeing desolation and death, survivors of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas began evacuating Friday, September 6, 2019, while relief was working in the devastated archipelago where the human toll has risen to 43 dead.
Dorian, who hit the Bahamas in category 5, the highest, has killed 43, according to a new count announced by Erica Wells Cox, spokesman for Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, on the American channel NBC News. The previous balance sheet reported 30 deaths.
“It is expected that this number will increase significantly,” she warned in the wake.
Shocked inhabitants
After crossing more than seven hours, more than 260 inhabitants of Abaco Island, evacuated by a ferry chartered by the government, arrived at the port of Nassau at nightfall according to an AFP journalist on the spot. A second ferry was to arrive in the night.
Melanie Lowe, who came with her four children and her puppy, says that her house has been half-destroyed. “I’m just happy that we can have a good night’s sleep, a shower and a healthy meal,” she says. Before being evacuated, “we were 16 in a three-room, to do our best, to use the rainwater to wash, to eat some frozen dishes”.
Melanie has found overnight accommodation in Nassau and will not go to the accommodation center set up by the government.
In this gym were close to 200 evacuees. Diane Forbes was waiting there to see her two sons, Patrick (24) and DeAngelo (28), she has not heard from since Tuesday.
“They said they were hungry, and the smell of bodies, dead, really started to affect them … I’m waiting, I just want to know if my sons are on board (the ferry) and if they’re fine . I will not move until they close the doors tonight and I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Destruction
In chaos and confusion, search and rescue operations continued, as best they could.
“It’s very complicated as there is almost no communication,” said an AFP official at the Bahamian Emergency Agency, NEMA.
“This is our Katrina,” said Health Minister Duane Sands on Thursday, referring to the hurricane that wreaked havoc in Louisiana in 2005. The minister added that he feared a final “appalling” toll.
“The public must expect unimaginable information about the human toll and suffering,” he warned.
In the town of Marsh Harbor, on the island of Great Abaco, in the north of the country, AFP witnessed the collection of corpses. About 60% of the island has been ravaged and thousands are homeless.
Sprayed houses, overturned cars, entire fields of debris, stranded boats and many flooded areas … As far as the eye can see, a desolate landscape stretches out with the traditional Bahamas tourist postcard.
“I honestly believe that Abaco is finished. I think that Abaco will not recover until the next ten years because everything is gone. Everything has disappeared. So, to get money, we need people to invest, “AFP Thaah Hepburn, a disaster survivor from Marsh Harbor, told AFP.
According to the UN, 70,000 people need immediate help in this Caribbean archipelago: water, food, medicine … The international organization announced that 85 tons of food would be sent over the next three months.
Dorian has “worked hard” on the Bahamas, over which he remained for a long time almost motionless, dropping up to 76 cm of rain in places.
Private, governmental, emanating from NGOs … Initiatives flourished in recent hours to provide support to the Bahamians.
Asked about CNN, singer Lenny Kravitz, one of the most famous representatives of the Bahamian diaspora, said he sent donations and boats full of food to the archipelago. “These people have nothing,” he said.
Hurricane Dorian continues its journey
Dorian, which continued up the Atlantic coast of the United States, Friday morning North Carolina, at Cape Hatteras, south of the Outer Banks tourist archipelago, already hit last year by the hurricane Florence.
Downgraded to category 1, it kept getting weaker, with winds reaching a maximum of 150 km/h.
The weather had returned to the tourist town of Charleston, South Carolina, where heavy squalls and light floods Thursday deprived 200,000 homes of electricity.
The centre of the hurricane is expected to return to southeastern New England (northeastern United States) on Friday night and Saturday morning, then to Nova Scotia (Canada), where less than 13 centimetres are expected late Saturday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Canadian authorities have issued a hurricane alert for Prince Edward Island and southwestern Nova Scotia
