As toll rises in Bahamas, priority turns to the living

Relief effort gathers pace to help residents after Hurricane Dorian leaves at least 30 dead

Above: Volunteers with World Central Kitchen transporting food supplies for survivors of Hurricane Dorian on Thursday in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, the Bahamas. Below: Residents of a caravan park in Emerald Isle, North Carolina, surveying the damage
Above: Volunteers with World Central Kitchen transporting food supplies for survivors of Hurricane Dorian on Thursday in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, the Bahamas. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Above: Volunteers with World Central Kitchen transporting food supplies for survivors of Hurricane Dorian on Thursday in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, the Bahamas. Below: Residents of a caravan park in Emerald Isle, North Carolina, surveying the damage
Above: Residents of a caravan park in Emerald Isle, North Carolina, surveying the damage left by the hurricane on Thursday. PHOTO: DPA

MARSH HARBOUR (Bahamas) • In some ways, keeping the living alive has taken priority over finding the dead in the hurricane-stricken Bahamas.

In a once sprawling shanty town on Great Abaco Island, Mr Roger Isma stared out over a wasteland of soggy mattresses, splintered buildings, overturned cars, torn clothing, shattered toilets, dead dogs, bent forks and mud, kilometres and kilometres of mud.

"Nobody knows how many dead people there are because no one has started looking there," Mr Isma said. "But they're out there, in the water, under the houses."

As of Thursday night, the official death toll in the Bahamas had risen to at least 30, but many residents are convinced the area known as The Mudd has become something of a common grave.

The toll is expected to increase as relief crews pour in from Florida and elsewhere, and search-and-rescue teams reach more isolated areas.

One Internet list of people missing in the Bahamas included more than 5,000 names - most of them, hopefully, of people simply unable to communicate with loved ones.

The government and non-profit organisations continued evacuating the elderly and sick from Abaco, but the process so far has been grindingly slow.

The Bahamian Health Ministry said helicopters and boats were on the way to help people in affected areas, though officials warned of delays because of severe flooding and limited access. On Thursday, emergency officials fanned out across stricken areas to track down people who were missing or in distress.

Crews began clearing streets and setting up aid distribution centres.

The United Nations announced the purchase of 8,000kg of ready-to-eat meals and said it will provide satellite communications equipment and airlift storage units, generators and prefab offices to set up logistics hubs.

A British Royal Navy ship docked at Abaco and distributed supplies to hurricane survivors.

On Grand Bahama, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship dropped off 10,000 meals, 10,000 bottles of water and more than 180 generators, as well as diapers and flashlights.

American Airlines said it flew a Boeing 737 from Miami to Nassau to drop off 6,350kg of relief supplies.

Troops from the Rhode Island National Guard were set to head to the Bahamas yesterday to help.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Dorian howled over North Carolina's Outer Banks yesterday, lashing the low-lying barrier islands as a weakened Category 1 hurricane.

Dorian swamped roads in the historic downtown of Charleston, South Carolina, knocked down some 150 trees and toppled power lines. Gusts topped 129kmh in some areas.

Dorian's eye was 16km off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, as the storm moved north-east at 22kmh.

It was expected to remain a hurricane as it swept up the Eastern Seaboard today, lashing the New England shore with heavy surf.

At least four people were killed in the United States. All were men in Florida or North Carolina who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane.

More than 370,000 people were without electricity early yesterday in the Carolinas and Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, DPA

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 07, 2019, with the headline As toll rises in Bahamas, priority turns to the living. Subscribe