The death toll in the Hurricane Dorian-ravaged Bahamas reached at least 30 Thursday, as search-and-rescue crews began pulling bodies and survivors alike from the wreckage of the Caribbean archipelago.
Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands cautioned that the final toll will be “staggering.”
“Make no bones about it, the numbers are going to be far higher,” Sands said in a report by the Nassau Guardian.
“It is going to be significantly higher than that. It’s just a matter of retrieving those bodies and making sure we understand how they died.”
Meanwhile, an assessment found Dorian inflicted as much as $7 billion in property damage to the Bahamas when it struck the island chain with 225-mph wind gusts on Sunday and hovered there for two days.
The estimate, from Boston-based insurance adjusters Karen Clark & Co., which specializes in assessing damage from catastrophes, does not include infrastructure damage done by the monster storm.
The hardest-hit areas were reduced to mud-strewn wastelands, photos showed Thursday, as US Coast Guard, Bahamian military and volunteer rescuers fanned out across storm-damaged portions of the islands.
Grand Bahama Island and the Abaco Islands were among the hardest hit, with local reports suggesting that nearly half of all the homes on the Abacos were either damaged or completely destroyed.
“Abaco is no more,” resident Kathryn Cartwright told the Bahamian Tribune newspaper.
Great Abaco and Little Abaco islands remained without power, fuel or drinking water, as Coast Guard choppers continued to bring survivors to safety throughout the day.
On Grand Bahama, crews worked to reopen the airport and used heavy equipment to pick up branches and palm fronds, as lines formed outside gas stations and grocery stores.
“People will be out of jobs for months,” Grand Bahama wood carver Gordon Higgs lamented while waiting in one of the many food lines forming outside gas stations and grocery stores.
“They’ll be homeless, no food. Nothing. The Bahamas has become like a Third World country,” he said.
Treasure Cay, a resort town on the east coast of the Abacos, saw more than 90 percent of its buildings destroyed, Stephanie Hield, chairman of the township, told the Bahamian Tribune.
Journalists reported seeing at least one body tangled under a tree branch next to twisted sheets of metal. According to locals, other bodies have also been spotted.
Meanwhile, cruise lines that frequent the archipelago on luxury voyages have been among the public and private donors who have chipped in to help the Bahamas rebuild, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Disney have all pledged $1 million for relief efforts.
With Wires