Bahamian officials said Monday they’re anticipating multiple fatalities in the archipelago, where Hurricane Dorian’s 165-mph winds and 23-foot storm surges have leveled thousands of houses, left swaths without power and caused millions of dollars in damage.
But with the storm still pounding the islands, even rescue workers were forced to huddle for shelter and have been unable to fully assess the damage — or help stranded and desperate Bahamians.
“We have reports of casualties, we have reports of bodies being seen,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield said during a briefing from the Abaco Islands, among the hardest-hit sections of the Bahamas.
“We cannot confirm those reports until we go out and have a look for ourselves,” Henfield said. “Power lines are down. Lampposts are down. Trees are across the streets. It is very dangerous to be outdoors if you don’t have to be outdoors.”
“From all reports, we have received catastrophic damage,” he said.
Officials reported that as many as 13,000 homes had been damaged by Monday morning, with the storm causing widespread power outages and leaving the airport on Grand Bahama under 5 feet of water, AccuWeather said on Twitter.
The Red Cross reported that flooding may have contaminated drinking water supplies with salt water, the AccuWeather report said.
Authorities have confirmed one Dorian-related death, reporting that 7-year-old Lachino McIntosh drowned in the Abacos while his family was fleeing the storm Sunday — and his sister remains missing.
Dorian became a historic Category 5 hurricane Sunday with sustained 185-mph winds and gusts of up to 225 mph, the highest ever recorded in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Only Hurricane Allen in 1980 matched the sustained winds, but did not make landfall at that strength.
The storm was downgraded to a Category 4 with sustained winds of 155 mph on Monday, still enough punch to continue to mercilessly pound the islands as it crawled within 30 miles of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island.
“We need you to bunker down,” said Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for Grand Bahama. “It’s going to be another 10-12 hours that we’re going to be bombarded like this.”
Henfield said Abaco’s government facility and a public clinic in Marsh Harbor had been turned into emergency shelter after “all of our shelters were mainly compromised.”
“We’re holding strong,” the minister said. “We’re asking you to continue to pray for us.”