Hurricane Dorian is now to blame for 20 deaths in the Bahamas — with more fatalities expected to be discovered amid a massive rescue effort across the storm-ravaged Caribbean country, an official said.
Seventeen of the victims were from the Abaco islands, while three others were found in Grand Bahama — two of the hardest hit areas, according to Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands.
Officials are withholding the victims’ identities until their families are notified.
The increased death toll was announced as rescue crews descended on the islands, using surveillance aircraft in the air and jet skis, boats and bulldozers on the ground to find survivors amid a landscape of shattered homes and flooded streets.
Many of the areas remain out of reach of Bahamanian rescuers, as more than 600 police officers and marines moved into Grand Bahama and another 100 in Abaco.
“Right now there are just a lot of unknowns,” said Iram Lewis, a member of the commonwealth’s parliament. “We need help.”
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis called it “one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history.”
The Red Cross reported that 45 percent of the homes in Abaco were damaged or destroyed when Dorian hit the islands as a monster Category 5 storm with 185-mph winds and gusts up to 225 mph Sunday.
Residents became trapped in their homes and attics as floodwaters rose as high as 23 feet.
The Tribune, the largest newspaper in the Bahamas, reported that the US Coast Guard and US border patrol agents had airlifted 61 people from Grand Bahama Island.
As of Wednesday night, Dorian — now a Category 2 storm — was positioned off the coast of Georgia, packing winds of up to 110-mph.
With Post wires
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