Global effort to aid devastated Bahamas gears up in Hurricane Dorian's wake

NASSAU, Bahamas (REUTERS) - An international relief effort gathered pace on Thursday (Sept 5) to help stunned residents of the Bahamas, where the health minister predicted a "staggering" death toll from Hurricane Dorian, now churning northward off the coast of South Carolina.

Aerial video of the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas worst hit by the then-Category 5 hurricane showed widespread devastation, with the harbour, shops, workplaces, a hospital and airport landing strips damaged or decimated.

The death toll from Dorian was officially 23 while authorities continued to retrieve and register bodies, Health Minister Duane Sands told local media.

But he said the final toll would be far higher.

"Let me say, that I believe the number will be staggering," he was quoted by The Nassau Guardian as telling Guardian radio.

"…I have never lived through anything like this and I don't want to live through anything like this again."

Sands said he has asked for help from the World Health Organisation and others. The United Nations has estimated more than 76,000 people were in need of humanitarian relief after the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday it was organising an airlift from Panama of storage units, generators and prefab offices for two logistics hubs, as well as satellite equipment for emergency responders, and has bought eight metric tonnes of ready-to-eat meals.

The UN agency has allocated US$5.4 million (S$7.4 million) to a three-month emergency operation to support 39,000 people, said Herve Verhoosel, senior WFP spokesperson.

"In a first phase, WFP will focus on the immediate procurement and distribution of up to 85 MT of ready-to-eat meals for the most affected communities," Verhoosel said.

A flight from the US Agency for International Development landed early on Thursday with enough relief supplies to help 31,500 people, bringing hygiene kits, water containers and buckets, plastic sheeting and chain saws.

Also arriving was a disaster assistance response team (DART) plane that included a fire and rescue team to help in the search for survivors, USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance said on Twitter.

Total insured and uninsured losses in the Bahamas amounted to US$7 billion, including buildings and business interruptions, according to a preliminary estimate by Karen Clark & Co, a consultancy that provides catastrophic modeling and risk management services.

With telephones down in many areas, residents posted lists of missing loved ones on social media. One Facebook post by media outlet Our News Bahamas had 2,500 comments, mainly listing lost family members.

One survivor on the Abaco Islands, Ramond King, said he watched as swirling winds ripped the roof off his house, then churned to a neighbour's home to pluck the entire structure into the sky.

"'This can't be real, this can't be real'," King recalled thinking.

"Nothing is here, nothing at all. Everything is gone, just bodies."

The Netherlands' ambassador to the United Nations tweeted the country was sending two naval ships with supplies from St Maarten, a Dutch island about 1,770km south-east of the Bahamas.

A British Royal Navy vessel was providing assistance, and Jamaica was sending a 150-member military contingent to help secure Abaco and Grand Bahama, officials said.

Volunteers also ferried supplies to the islands in a flotilla of small boats.

Cruise lines responded as well.

The Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line said it would transport first responders, medics and journalists for free to Freeport on Thursday, returning to Florida on Friday with any Bahamians who have documents to enter the United States.

"It's a humanitarian trip. We're also taking donations that have arrived in the port (in Palm Beach)," said Francisco Sanchez, a sales representative for the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean's Empress of the Seas said it was delivering 10,000 meals of chicken, rice and fruit to Grand Bahama.

Dorian killed one person in Puerto Rico before hovering over the Bahamas for two days with torrential rains and fierce winds that whipped up 3.7m to 5.5m storm surges.

On Thursday, the storm was barreling north-northeast just off the southeastern US coast, moving at about 11kmh, with maximum sustained winds fluctuating between 175kmh and 185kmh, between a Category 2 and Category 3 storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

The storm was about 80km east-southeast of flood-prone Charleston, South Carolina, at 11.30am EST (5.30am on Friday, Singapore time), the US National Hurricane Centre said.

The forecast called for the storm to move north-east along North Carolina's Outer Banks, a popular coastal vacation spot, by Friday afternoon and then out to sea. The NHC also added a tropical storm warning for coastal Virginia.

Parts of the Carolinas could get 15 to 25cm of rain, with some areas topping out at 25 to 38cm. Storm surge was forecast at 1.5 to 2.4 metres in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

More than 2.2 million people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina had been ordered to evacuate, although Florida avoided a direct hit.

More than 239,000 homes and businesses in the US South-east were without power, according to local electric companies.