"Hurricane Dorian crystallizes the existential threat posed to small island developing states by the ongoing climate emergency," Mami Mizutori, the United Nations' secretary-general’s special representative for disaster risk reduction, said in a statement last September. Over 70,000 people were affected by the hurricane, and the island nation sustained an estimated $7 billion in damages, according to a report from the World Food Programme last September.Īs of last December, the official death toll stood at 70 people, but it is possible that more than 600 people drowned and were washed out to sea, according to NBC News. Infrastructure has been damaged, slowing the island’s economic recovery, and unemployment remains high. “We really thought we were going to die in the house,” says Hill.In Grand Bahama, the water supply has become too salty to drink, affecting over half of the island’s households. We were planning to watch a movie, go to sleep,” Symonette recalls. “Just like every other storm, Bahamians made soup. But for many islanders, as Symonette calls them, enduring hurricanes was part of life. Prior to the storm, the Bahamas Prime Minister had issued an evacuation order for much of the northern and central portion of the Abaco islands. As Hill began to cry, Symonette says that he thought about taking her and making a run for it, but he’s now glad he stayed - several of the friends’ houses he had considered fleeing to were destroyed. As the hurricane passed on Sunday, the walls of the house in which they’d hunkered down began to flex, the roof collapsed, and the ground floor was flooded with waist-deep water, Symonette says. Hill and Symonette agree that they weren’t sure they would make it through the storm at all. “It looks like what you would see in horror movies.” Here’s the Latest on Its Pathīefore leaving, Hill told TIME that the islanders are in desperate need of help. Read more: Hurricane Dorian Makes Landfall in North Carolina. He’s put each on a plane off the island, one at at time - his grandmother to her house in Nassau on Wednesday, his father on Thursday, and his girlfriend on Friday. Symonette is planning to travel to Nassau in a small fishing boat on Saturday, now that he knows his loved ones are safe. (The Bahamas apprehended or helped to apprehend 1,172 Haitians in 2018, according to the Royal Bahamas Defense Force.) “If they go to Nassau, they’re going to be put in a detention center because a lot of them don’t have papers,” Symonette says. As some of the Haitians are not documented immigrants, they have begun to take shelter inside abandoned houses. The storm decimated a settlement of makeshift shelters built by Great Abaco’s longtime Haitian community. The local gas station and two hardware stores - which sold guns - have been looted, he says.Īlthough many people are trying desperately to leave the islands, others are determined to stay, Symonette says. Symonette has also seen people walking around carrying firearms and breaking into stores. “The tune of everyone is, ‘I want to wake up from this nightmare.’” “Everybody kind of lost their minds,” Symonette says. The storm also left behind pools of water in the remains of destroyed buildings, creating nurseries for mosquitos throughout the island. Many people do not have access to adequate food or water, and limited sanitation is operating on the island. Symonette says that the island is running out of food, water and fuel and that even people whose houses survived the storm will soon have to leave. CNN has reported that hundreds of people are still missing, and the government has brought in “more body bags and coolers.” The Bahamian government has announced that 43 people have been confirmed dead, but Hill and Symonette agree with the Prime Minister’s warning that there could be more. Symonette says that the island has endured many hurricanes, but nothing like this in his lifetime. The 185 mph winds and rapid flooding have destroyed houses, drowned people and animals and, in the aftermath, left residents looting stores in desperation.
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