Ramon Espinosa/AP A mass of wrecked homes float in a marsh off of Great Abaco Island on September 4, 2019. (At the bottom of this story, find links about how you can help the Bahamas.) Here’s what they’re seeing so far: Anastacia Makey, 43, far right, looks at her phone as she and her family sits on cots with other residents inside a church that was opened up as a shelter as they wait out Hurricane Dorian in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, September 1, 2019. They reveal islands torn to shreds, whole homes washed out to sea. Videos and images have started to trickle out of the storm-battered Bahamas from photojournalists and locals on social media. If it gets into the ocean, it can harm coral and other wildlife as well. One consequence of an oil spill, Earther reports, is that is can contaminate drinking water and make it toxic. It’s unclear if any of that oil has spilled into the sea, or is just confined to the land. Norwegian energy company Equinor reports oil has spilled out of one its storage facilities on Grand Bahama. On top of the human tragedy, an environmental disaster might be left in the storm’s wake. I ask for your prayers for those in affected areas and for our first responders.” “Our focus is search, rescue, and recovery. “We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Hubert Minnis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, said earlier this week. If anybody had ridden out the storm there I don’t know how they would be alive.” describing the scene at Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport, Bahamas /wYm0aG8kUQ- CNN September 4, 2019 In all, more than 60,000 people may need food and water assistance. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports “flooding in Abaco is believed to have contaminated wells with saltwater.” Both Grand Bahama and the Abacos may need around 60,000 gallons of water delivered each day. CNN reports that the main airport in Freeport, has been all but destroyed, which may make bringing aid to island difficult in the coming days. The US Coast Guard is responding and the British Royal Navy are responding to the disaster, and relief agencies like the Red Cross are jumping in to help. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimates 13,000 homes may have been severely damaged or destroyed across the Bahamas (about half of all homes). Many, many people are still missing, according to reports. “The public needs to prepare for unimaginable information about the death toll and the human suffering,” Duane Sands, health minister of the Bahamas, told a radio station in the Bahamas. The storm only cleared out of the Bahamas Wednesday. At least 30 people have been reported dead across both sets of islands that figure is likely to rise. We still don’t know the complete scope of the impact on Grand Bahama or on the Abaco Islands, another part of the Bahamas pummeled by the enormous storm. They say they saved dozens of people pleading for help, among them pregnant women and even a baby in a Styrofoam cooler.And this is the inundation on Grand Bahama Island: /mYFOZUPLpt- Capital Weather Gang September 4, 2019 Conditions were too rough to ride safely, but they had to try.Īfter a few failed attempts to ride out on Monday, the pair made it to Pioneers Way, a street south of the decimated Grand Bahama Airport. He insisted we take the daughter and wife to safety first, so we did and came back for him.'īefore the dramatic rescue of the Pintard family, Smith and Burrows had tried to rescue Smith's cousin on Monday. 'Jensen had the minister and his wife and Jensen also flipped over.

I had his daughter and my friend, and the jet ski tipped over,' Smith said. 'The wind was pelting you, so it felt like rocks being pelted at you. Jason Albury rode on board to navigate them to the minister's house and help with the rescue. A dozen jet skiers worked together to rescue 100 people on Tuesday.īurrows and Smith, two friends that are part of the GB Jet Ski Club, were the men that drove their jet skis to save the minister and his family.

Bahamas aftermath