After killing at least 43 people in the Bahamas and nearing the United States, Hurricane Dorian, weakened but still dangerous, fell on the night of Saturday, September 7 to Sunday, September 8 in eastern Canada. Downgraded, he advanced with strong winds, torrential rains and waves of nearly twenty meters.

Classified as a "very intense post-tropical cyclone" by the Canadian Hurricane Center (CHC), Dorian made landfall near Halifax, Nova Scotia. There, winds of 140 km / h were measured and more than 500,000 households were deprived of electricity throughout the state, according to the authorities.

In the Bahamas, where the authorities expect a worsening of the balance sheet more than a week after the Dorian crossing, many planes, helicopters and boats, including cruise ships, were busy evacuating the affected residents to the city. capital of the archipelago, Nassau, or to the United States.

Images broadcast by television stations showed Halifax streets, deserted, wind-blown and a collapsed crane on a building under construction. No injuries were reported.

"The safety of Canadians is our top priority and we are ready to help Atlantic Canada as a result of this storm," tweeted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Approximately 700 soldiers have been dispatched to the eastern provinces to help restore electricity, clear roads and provide relief.

With @HarjitSajjan, @RalphGoodale and @CDS_Canada_CEMD, I have just received the latest information on Hurricane Dorian. The safety of Canadians is our top priority and we are ready to help Atlantic Canada as a result of this storm.

Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) September 7, 2019

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Dorian was to continue on Sunday, September 8, over eastern Canada. Weather alerts have been issued for Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Eastern Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador. The depression should then lose strength and move away over the North Atlantic.

"We are dying"

Thousands of kilometers to the south, in the Bahamas, evacuations have accelerated. The authorities continue to warn that the provisional toll of 43 dead is likely to increase "considerably".

The buildings at the small airport in Marsh Harbor suffered when Dorian, then in category 5, fought hard on the island of Abaco with winds of more than 250 km / h. The track is still practicable and hundreds of people were waiting Saturday to be able to embark for Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

"It's been almost a week now, people have no food, no water, bodies are still lying around, it's not healthy to stay here," says a young mother, Chamika, to AFP Durosier, come to take the air outside the terminal to escape the foul smell of toilets, whose hunts can not be drawn, for lack of water. "Some sleep here for three or four days, the number of seats is limited in airplanes," she continues, still shaken by the shock of the passage of Dorian, the roof of the house that collapsed on her and her daughter and the cuts endured by crawling on the ground.

At the commercial port of Marsh Harbor, several hundred people were also waiting to leave under a sun back, some of which protected themselves with sheets while the odors of waste mixed across the island to those of decomposing bodies.

"We have no water, no electricity, we are dying, it's really catastrophic, I had to walk to get here at 4 am And since then wait, I really want to leave the island, "says Miralda Smith, a Haitian who must find her Bahamian husband in Nassau.

Private cruise ships were involved in the evacuation operations. One of them, from the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, arrived Saturday morning near Palm Beach, Florida, with more than 1,500 survivors from Grand Bahama on board.

According to the UN, at least 70,000 people need "immediate assistance" in the Bahamas, the equivalent of the population of the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, the hardest hit.

Solidarity with the Bahamas was taking place around the world. A shipment of the UN World Food Program, with nearly 15,000 meals and tons of equipment, was scheduled to arrive Saturday on the affected islands.

France has announced the deployment, as part of a European mission, several dozens of soldiers to participate in relief. And Donald Trump has pledged help from the United States, whose coastguards are already at work in the Bahamas.

With AFP