0.9.143At least 1,300 Bahamians are still unaccounted for more than two weeks after Hurricane Dorian decimated entire neighbourhoods in East Grand Bahama.
Once a gorgeous island with 51,000 residents, one US medic team involved in the relief efforts said Grand Bahama looks like a war zone after Dorian “pulverized it”.
In a CNN weekend report, medical team leader Brittany Reidy, 29, a nurse “determined to help survivors in the most ravaged areas”, said: “Most people have not wanted to come here.”
The official death toll across the Bahamas is 52, but that number is expected to skyrocket, with 1,300 people still missing two weeks after the hurricane, the report said.
“Some may be trapped under mountains of rubble where houses once stood. Others may have been washed away in the storm surge, their bodies only recently surfacing on land.”
One medic team member said “the bodies she encountered had most likely washed up during the storm surges because there were no standing structures anywhere in sight”.
“They need to bring cadaver dogs out here to find them. Right now, they are just (considered) missing,” she added.The report noted that “long-term health hazards abound”.
“Just reaching this part of the Bahamas is a monumental feat. Grand Bahama Highway, a lifeline connecting the entire length of the island, was impassable in many places for days.
“Much of the infrastructure on the eastern half of Grand Bahama is destroyed. Now that the highway has been cleared, the medics can reach places where residents had been trapped,” the report added.“Utility poles and uprooted trees turned into flying projectiles in East Grand Bahama.
“Mold isn’t the only long-term heath risk after the storm. In various parts of East Grand Bahama, the stench of sewage fills the air. There’s no running water, and the risk of infection is rampant.
“The medics hope many of the missing residents evacuated, either before or after the storm. But they fear many are dead.”
The medics identified at least 30 locations where they smelled corpses — even if they couldn’t see them.
One nurse practitioner and Army veteran,said she hopes cadaver dog teams would come and find the bodies.
“If they don’t, the decomposing bodies could lead to a cholera epidemic. You just can’t leave them,” she said.
Countless houses were shredded to pieces in the eastern half of Grand Bahama island, the report continued.
Seam Russell, a school teacher who evacuated to the US after Dorian demolished his home said: “I’m alive, and that’s all that matters. Not everyone can say that. A loss of this magnitude is really tough.“No one would ever in their wildest dream would believe a storm would come like that,” he added.
All he has now fits in a small overnight bag.
“I don’t know what the plan is. But I’m just going by faith. We’re starting all over again, because I lost everything.”
“The teacher said he would love to rebuild on East Grand Bahama. He’s bought another ticket to return by boat on October 1.
But he knows that might not be possible. He has no job to return to, and the building he worked in is destroyed.”
Moving forward, he said: “After this, I really don’t think the Bahamas will be the same,” he said. “It will not be the same.”
