Bahamians scramble for a new life after Dorian

Bahamians scramble for a new life after Dorian
Bahamians await evacuation from Marsh Harbour
90% of the infrastructure in hard-hit areas damaged; nearly 70k in need of food, shelter.

#NASSAU, BAHAMAS Even as Hurricane Dorian rampaged over the Bahamas’ Great Abaco Island, its people were scurrying for shelter and an exit. By Sunday, a week after one of the strongest Caribbean hurricanes on record plowed into the archipelago nation of 400,000 people, the capital city— Nassau—faced a wave of thousands of evacuees fleeing hard-hit areas including Marsh Harbour in the Abacos, where some 90% of the infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.

Great Abaco is littered with mounds of unused construction materials, waterlogged notebooks and Bibles, stained piles of tattered clothes, single shoes, overturned bath tubs and rotting mattresses. Dead cats and dogs are strewn throughout the wreckage while some stray animals dig through the garbage for food. Bahamian officials are still pulling bodies from the wreckage across the island and acknowledge that the current official death toll of 43 is likely to rise.

Some 70,000 people are in need of food and shelter, according to the United Nations’ World Food Programme’s estimate. Interviews with evacuees this week shone light on the extent of Dorian’s destruction. Survivors avoided death, but have lost homes, jobs and hospitals.

Jenelle Eli, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said, “People are concerned about their next step, but also how they’ll earn an income and what their lives will look like in the future.” Bahamian officials acknowledged on Saturday that Nassau will strain to house all the people that need shelter. “We can look at the tent city concept and the container city concept,” Captain Stephen Russell, who heads the National Emergency Management Agency, said.


Dorian hits Halifax in Canada

Dorian brought hurricaneforce winds to far-eastern Canada on Sunday, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. It hit near the city of Halifax Saturday afternoon, ripping roofs off apartment buildings and uprooting trees. There were no reported deaths in Canada. The government said that up to 700 Canadian military personnel will be fanning out across the Maritimes to help restore electricity, clear roadways and evacuate residents.
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