Parts of the Bahamas hit by Hurricane Dorian have been “decimated,” the country’s prime minister said.
Hubert Minnis told a news conference Tuesday that the current death toll of seven was expected to rise, calling Dorian “one of the greatest national crises in our country's history.”
Dorian made landfall on the Bahamas’ Abaco Islands on Sunday with record-equaling winds as a Category 5 storm, and it later came to a near standstill over the island of Grand Bahama for around 36 hours. The Red Cross said at least 13,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged.
Dorian has now weakened to a Category 2 storm, although it has grown larger in area as it moves toward the US. At 5 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center warned of a life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds along the Florida east coast, as well as the coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia.
Rescuers were able to reach the Abaco Islands for the first time yesterday and survey the devastation brought by Dorian. Lia Head-Rigby, who runs a relief group, told the Associated Press, “It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic.”
These aerial pictures show seemingly endless destruction in the Abaco Islands, with homes destroyed and cars, boats, and shipping containers sprawled along flooded roads.
