Hurricane Dorian - August/September 2019 #1

[Bravo]

Xanadu was very visible from Condo we rented. For as long as I can remember it has been empty with windows blown out. Howard Hughes once occupied the penthouse and it hosted folks such as Lucille Ball and the "Brat Pack". Apparently is was a rocking place in it's day. Around the corner from us was a vacation home once owned by Sinatra. It was let go and falling apart. You see many huge homes unoccupied for years and let go. Lloyds of London is a huge Insurer there. I cant imagine the cost. You see a mix of everything when you drive around the Island. The beaches are beautiful and crystal clear. I guess I should say were crystal clear. I am so sad for those with little means who now have nothing.

 

[Bravo]

Oh, it wouldn't be bugging me! I appreciate the care and concern! I think of Websleuths members as part of my extended family. I have never seen so many great, supportive people in one place in my entire life. With how snarky and mean some areas of the internet can be, it's nice to know there's a welcoming place out there. You all are the best! Thanks!

We are glad u are here and safe.

 

[CharlestonGal]

"STUART, Fla. — Rashad Reckley greeted U.S. Customs in a gray tank top, dirtied white basketball shorts and sandals. He had been in the same clothes for three days.

Reckley had just arrived on a small airplane with no passenger seats, but a dozen Bahamians on board. He and his family of five had sat in cargo for an hour and 15 minutes. They flew from Treasure Cay to the Treasure Coast. Now they were standing at Witham Field in Stuart.

While they waited, they recalled.

Reckley remembered bodies floating down the streets. He remembered six trucks full of bodies.

Reckley remembered hanging onto a tree with his fiancée, T’Quylla Thompson, until Hurricane Dorian’s eye arrived.

“I wish I could forget it,” Thompson said. "

'I wish I could forget it': Hurricane Dorian washed away survivors' lives in Bahamas

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The distribution of emergency supplies of food, water and medicine has been mostly coordinated by an ad hoc network of volunteers from Bahamian and American nonprofit groups.

Also, the Bahamas and other small island nations work through a regional organization, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate emergency response and relief and their help is not always clearly visible to people struggling on the ground.

“It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous,” said Martin McCafferty, a contractor based here in Marsh Harbour, the biggest town on the Abaco Islands. “This is a catastrophe, and they should be here in numbers.”

But since Dorian carved a path of destruction across the Abacos and Grand Bahama islands this week, residents say the seeming absence of the Bahamian government has been glaring. And when the roads between isolated settlements needed to be cleared of broken trees and downed power lines, the work was mostly done by ordinary citizens.

Foreign governments, mainly the United States and British, have a notable presence. That’s because a tiny country like the Bahamas — its population of 330,000 is roughly 0.1 percent of the United States’ — is easily overwhelmed by a catastrophe on the scale of Hurricane Dorian.

The Caribbean relief agency, made up of 18 countries, has been working behind the scenes on a response plan. It enlisted the assistance of foreign governments, the United Nations and aid organizations, said Elizabeth Riley, the organization’s deputy executive director.

“One country does not have sufficient assets,” she said. “We look to sister nations to provide them.”

A Bahamas Defense Force official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said that while the Bahamian government was involved in the relief effort, appearances might be different, especially when the public only sees foreign helicopters. The Defense Force was not flying helicopters in the disaster zone for a simple reason, he said: It didn’t have any.
In Bahamas, Battered Residents Ask: Where Is Our Government?

 

[Simply Southern]

José Andrés on Twitter


Reporting in from Abaco, where many many people are trying to leave by boat here in the port....They have nothing left. We @WCKitchen are bringing meals for those waiting every day... #ChefsForBahamas José Andrés on Twitter


He sounds so sad. Says many can't leave because they have no papers.

Such a mess!!!

Jmho

 

[CharlestonGal]

"The Ocracoke ponies are all safe and accounted for!"

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

Happy dance! In the midst of all this tragedy and suffering I've been hanging onto the hope that the wild horses of Ocracoke made it through. And they did!!!

 

[MsFacetious]

Simon Lee‏ @SimonLeeWx 1h1 hour ago
Canadian buoy #44137, located south of Nova Scotia near Sable Island Bank, is reporting a significant wave height of 50 feet thanks to #HurricaneDorian. This buoy infamously reported a 100.7 foot wave during "The Perfect Storm" in October 1991. @rms5539

sable island - Twitter Search

 

[CharlestonGal]

José Andrés on Twitter


Reporting in from Abaco, where many many people are trying to leave by boat here in the port....They have nothing left. We @WCKitchen are bringing meals for those waiting every day... #ChefsForBahamas José Andrés on Twitter


He sounds so sad. Says many can't leave because they have no papers.

Such a mess!!!

Jmho

Good god. What do papers even matter at this point? That can all be sorted out later. These people need help NOW.

 

[Simply Southern]

Bahamas Press on Twitter

On Saturday 12:28 pm the Ministry of Works getting a new paint job? Is this URGENT? #Dorian Bahamas Press on Twitter

I guess painting a government building takes priority over feeding folks...

Jmo

 

[MsFacetious]

It's going to start getting dark...

 

[Simply Southern]

This is a must watch.

Bahamas Press on Twitter

BP| Stories from the ground of Abaco in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. Bahamas Press on Twitter

 

[MsFacetious]

Recovery teams are bringing in bodies to a makeshift mortuary

A makeshift mortuary has been set up in Marsh Harbour, one of the areas of the Bahamas hit hardest by Hurricane Dorian, according to CNN's Paula Newton.

Newton said she saw at least two bodies on a truck at the site. The morticians told her that their work has been slow because recovering bodies has proved to be a difficult task. Many bodies are submerged in water and require dive teams to recover them.

"We are still waiting to do our work," one of the morticians told Newton.

As CNN's Gary Tuchman toured devastated areas in the town on Friday, he said the smell of death lingered in the air.

Search and rescue personnel who arrived with cadaver dogs on the Abaco Islands, where Marsh Harbour is located, brought body bags and coolers to store human remains, said Joy Jibrilu, director general of the country's tourism and aviation ministry.

Workers also brought equipment to count the dead and to understand the scope of damage, Jibrilu said.


Dorian is no longer a hurricane, but it remains dangerous

Dorian is now a post-tropical cyclone, according to the National Hurricane Center's latest advisory on Saturday evening ahead of an expected landfall in Canada.

Dorian lost its status as a hurricane is because it no longer has a warm core, CNN meteorologist Gene Norman explained, though it is still a low-pressure system.

But even though it's no longer classified as a hurricane, the storm is still dangerous with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph — the equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. Hurricane warnings remain in effect for parts of the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, the center said.

"While the change in classification is technical, the fact of the matter is it's still a dangerous situation and people in the area should not let their guard down," Norman said.

Live updates: Hurricane Dorian's aftermath in the Bahamas - CNN

 

[CharlestonGal]

It's going to start getting dark...

CURRENT WIND SPEED

Date/Time Temp Speed Gusts Dir
09/07/2019 06:41:00 pm 12°C 84 km/h 110 km/h ENE
09/07/2019 06:35:00 pm 12°C 81 km/h 114 km/h ENE
09/07/2019 06:29:00 pm 12°C 81 km/h 114 km/h ENE
09/07/2019 06:23:00 pm 12°C 85 km/h 108 km/h ENE

 

[JudgeJoe]

"STUART, Fla. — Rashad Reckley greeted U.S. Customs in a gray tank top, dirtied white basketball shorts and sandals. He had been in the same clothes for three days.

Reckley had just arrived on a small airplane with no passenger seats, but a dozen Bahamians on board. He and his family of five had sat in cargo for an hour and 15 minutes. They flew from Treasure Cay to the Treasure Coast. Now they were standing at Witham Field in Stuart.

While they waited, they recalled.

Reckley remembered bodies floating down the streets. He remembered six trucks full of bodies.

Reckley remembered hanging onto a tree with his fiancée, T’Quylla Thompson, until Hurricane Dorian’s eye arrived.

“I wish I could forget it,” Thompson said. "

'I wish I could forget it': Hurricane Dorian washed away survivors' lives in Bahamas

Can’t imagine...
“Out on the streets, Wayne Reckley recalled heavy amounts of looting. He saw people stealing a 60-inch TV and thought, “What are you going to do with it? Lay on it?” ”

No mention of US...
“The good thing is Canada is opening up to refugees, opening up to us, and also the U.K.,” Reckley said. “I have a house in the Grand Bahamas and I know that’s destroyed and then everything I own in the Abaco is destroyed. I have nowhere to go.”

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Linked article dated Aug 30:

#THE Minnis administration’s disaster, mitigation, response and recovery plan features a $100m line of credit from the Inter-American Development Bank.

#Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced on Friday that he instructed Finance Minister Peter Turnquest to mobilise the credit line as Grand Bahama, Abaco and its cays prepare to face potentially destructive Hurricane Dorian.

#“The evacuations are part of the government’s disaster, mitigation, response and recovery plan,” Dr Minnis said during a national press conference on Friday.

#“We are working to ensure that the evacuations are completed as efficiently and as orderly as possible given the circumstances at hand, and the possibility of the hurricane taking a different path than currently forecast.

#“We have confirmed that there are sufficient medical supplies available at the Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand Bahama.

#“The minister of finance has been instructed to mobilise the $100m line of credit from the Inter-American Development Bank, which we signed in April.”

#He continued: “This is a key component of the government’s readiness plan so that we can have access to resources as quickly as possible to speed up response and recovery efforts.
$100m line of credit for hurricane response

 

[JudgeJoe]

"The Ocracoke ponies are all safe and accounted for!"

Corolla Wild Horse Fund

Happy dance! In the midst of all this tragedy and suffering I've been hanging onto the hope that the wild horses of Ocracoke made it through. And they did!!!

AWESOME!

 

[JudgeJoe]

José Andrés on Twitter


Reporting in from Abaco, where many many people are trying to leave by boat here in the port....They have nothing left. We @WCKitchen are bringing meals for those waiting every day... #ChefsForBahamas José Andrés on Twitter


He sounds so sad. Says many can't leave because they have no papers.

Such a mess!!!

Jmho

Don’t get me started on the papers! THESE PEOPLE ARE JUST HOPING TO SURVIVE!

 

[CharlestonGal]

"The Royal Caribbean cruise liner Symphony of the Seas arrived in Grand Bahama on Friday morning bringing with it 10,000 meals the company has provided itself. The food will be distributed by local NGOs and the Bahamian government.

The United Nations has announced the purchase of eight tons in ready to eat meals and is aiming to provide other assistance including satellite communications and generators.

The UN has said since Wednesday that around 70,000 people in the northern archipelagos of the Bahamas are in need of life-saving assistance."

'It's all gone': shattered Bahamas counts cost of Hurricane Dorian's destruction

Notice the absence of the Bahamian government? All this aid is coming from outside. Did they seriously have no plan at all for a hurricane?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Article dated Jun 27:

#ALTHOUGH the Bahamas is predicted to have a "normal" hurricane season, Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest yesterday pointed out that it "only takes one storm to really cause devastation."

#He noted the major hurricanes of 2015, 2016, and 2017 cost the country approximately $820m.

#Speaking on the sidelines of the Bahamas National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment (NDPBA) workshop, Mr Turnquest said "it is not a matter of 'if', but 'when' we will face a major catastrophe," as he stressed the importance of hurricane preparedness.

#Financial measures the government already has in place include a credit-line with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and its participation in the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), as well as a "self-funded" disaster relief fund, which the government hopes to grow to approximately $200m.

#When asked about this fund, Mr Turnquest said: "It's a part of our financial planning. When we revealed the budget, we indicated that we were going to set up a special fund for disaster relief, particularly to deal with the relief efforts that in the past has caused us to have to go and borrow. "And the traceability of it is difficult, getting it at a good rate is (difficult). So we want to see if we can help ourselves and build up this fund to an extent that we can take care of the most pressing and immediate needs in the event of an aftermath of a storm.

#"So, last year we made a $1m deposit into that fund, this year we will do the same. Eventually once we start to turn a surplus, we want to dedicate one per cent or a minimum of 0.1 per cent of our GDP to this disaster fund so that we build it up to an eventual $200m, to which then we can invest it and it can become self-sustainable. And again this is an effort, or one of the tools that we are putting into our bag, recognising that it is not a matter of if, but when we will face a major catastrophe, some natural disaster, in this country.
Turnquest: Prepare for hurricanes

 

[mickey2942]

Cholera would be the worst case scenario here. With the heat, dead bodies. I have a suspicion that we are not getting the complete picture from main stream media.