Blog

Bahamas, September 3: Hurricane Dorian, a massive category 4 disaster, has arrived and spread panic and terror in the Bahamas and adjoining regions. It unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that officials urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary.

Officials in the Bahamas said they received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes. A radio station received more than 2,000 distress messages, including reports of a 5-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a grandmother with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters. Other reports involved a group of eight children and five adults stranded on a highway and two storm shelters that flooded.

The water reached roofs and the tops of palm trees. One woman recorded water lapping at the stairs of her home’s second floor. Most people went to shelters as the storm neared.

Tourist hotels shut down, and people living on the islands boarded up their homes. Many were expected to be left homeless. Police Chief Samuel Butler urged people to remain calm and share their GPS coordinates, but he said rescue crews had to wait until weather conditions improved. “We simply cannot get to you,” he told Bahamas radio station ZNS.

At least five deaths in the Bahamas were blamed on the storm. At least 21 people were hurt in the Bahamas and evacuated by helicopters, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said.