Hurricane Dorian made it’s way past the Bahamas over the last several days but although the now-Category 2 storm has now reached the U.S. East Coast, it left devastation across the northern half of the archipelago of islands off the southern Florida coast, as the death toll has reached 30, according to the Washington Post.
Dorian ravaged the Bahamian Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama as a Category 5 storm. The Weather Channel reports roads remain closed as a result of the destruction, which included severe flooding of homes. Rescue groups are trying to assist survivors by giving them food and medicine and taking the people most affected by the devastation to safety.
But amid the turmoil has come stories of survival. One woman who resides on Abaco Island told MSNBC of how it has affected her and her children.
“It’s not good,” Greta Pintard told the network Wednesday afternoon. “Many people are dead. There’s nothing on the island.
“Everything that is basic — water, food, pampers, medication — just basic necessities, everything is gone,” she added, noting she was “fortunate” and able to get away from harm but that “we have had people that have had seizures and they just died because there’s not enough food and water so they need to get stuff there as soon as possible.”
Pintard explained how she and her family managed to make it out alive.
“During the storm, my roof went off,” she says before beginning to tear up. “My husband had to put my son and some other persons in the roof and they slept in the rafters. He slept on the washer. A guy slept on the fridge. It wasn’t good conditions at all. But we got out. The next day, we went somewhere else to sleep and everybody shared the food and water that they had. And that’s how we made it.”
She also said that although the waters were up to her husband’s neck at one point, they made the decision to open their home’s door and let in others, resulting in their lives being saved.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Londa Sawyer, also of the Abaco Islands, said she gave it up to God for saving her, her two children and two dogs from the hurricane, which saw winds reach record-setting rates of up to 185 mph, with gusts of 225 mph.
“It looks like a bomb hit,” she said following her landing by helicopter in Nassau, Bahamas. “I’m just thankful I’m alive. The Lord saved me.”
As for what the Bahamian government is doing, hundreds of police and marines have been sent into the affected areas.
“We are seeing bravery and fortitude of Bahamians who endured hours and days of horror,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said, according to USA Today. “Our urgent task will be to provide food, water, shelter and safety and security.”
