Over the last 48 hours, Hurricane Dorian has brutalized the Bahamas, as its winds and water have caused millions of dollars worth of damages, and have left people without shelter. Dorian was listed as a Category 5, the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record.
Bahamians have taken to social media in hopes of finding lost family members and friends, as reports have confirmed that at least 5 people have died.
“Our focus is search, rescue, and recovery,” Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said at a news conference Sunday night.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of the Bahamas has created an online form to track missing people:
Former NBA star Rick Fox, who hails from the Bahamas, took to Twitter to send out advisory tweets.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Iram Lewis, a member of Parliament in the Bahamas, said, “It’s dark, communication is down, we do not know what’s going on right now.”
“We’re gonna need living arrangements, we’re actually going to need medical supplies — our only hospital on the Bahamas, the 911 hospital, we had to evacuate that,” Lewis said.
So far the U.S. is providing assistance by deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team, according to the State Department.