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The provisional toll of the devastating Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has climbed again to 30, said Hubert Minnis, the prime minister of the archipelago, on Thursday. The Bahamas continue to search for and count its dead, even though the blue sky has returned. The harbor of Marsh Harbor, on the island of Great Abaco, has on all sides a desolate face, so much were the elements unleashed.
The previous balance sheet reported 20 deaths, but the authorities fear that the final figure, once completed relief operations, is much higher than the 30 now announced. The hurricane has caused a devastation that will last "generations" in the Bahamas, said Mr. Minnis earlier. As far as the eye can see, there are houses with torn roofs, others seeming to have been pounded, trees uprooted or with broken branches.
Everybody expects, as the Prime Minister and other members of the archipelago government have said, that the death toll will increase as large areas of the island of Great Abaco are flooded, complicating relief access. And hundreds of boats are out of use, lying on their sides or flipped like pancakes. Including large trawlers, which were swept by the Dorian winds.
The good news: Hurricane #Dorian has weakened to a category 1 hurricane. The bad news: Tropical storm-force conditions are rapidly spreading northward along the NC coast #NCwx pic.twitter.com/VBCuLBWPqC
WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) September 6, 2019Downgraded to category 1
Rare vehicles, spared by the hurricane, however, roll. The pavement of the main street was cleaned of pieces of cinder block, corrugated sheets, branches and palms of coconut palms. Some residents have collected their belongings and piled them into pick-ups in search of safer shelter.
About 70,000 people " need immediate help " in the affected parts of the archipelago, according to the United Nations.
Downgraded to category 1, Dorian continued Friday his slow recovery of the east coast of the United States.
With AFP