Bahamians share stories of survival and death
Locals say you can smell decomposing bodies as you walk through Marsh Harbor in the Abaco Islands.
Like in this shantytown known locally as “The Mudd"… now reduced to ruins.
After Hurricane Dorian barreled through this once picturesque island nation, whole towns have been transformed into unrecognizable piles of debris.
The storm has passed, and now residents and tourists are just trying to get out.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) HURRICANE SURVIVOR, SYLVIE MCCARTY, SAYING:
"There are so many Bahamians stranded here. I’m just dumbfounded, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life."
Reuters Nick Brown was at the airport in Treasure Cay in Abaco.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS REPORTER NICK BROWN:
"Behind me are hundreds of people who are trying to get off of Abaco, it was one of the most damaged parts of the Bahamas when Hurricane Dorian struck a few days ago. Most of the people we’ve talked to today, their homes are completely destroyed. They’re here just trying to get to Nassau, or to Florida, to see a doctor, to get their kids some care. To find their families. They just have nowhere to go."
As they waited, survivors shared harrowing stories of destruction and desperation.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) HURRICANE SURVIVOR, FRANKLIN THOMPSON, SAYING:
“It was too late to get out. So we took refuge in the closet. So me and him, my autistic son, watched the hurricane take our roof off.”
(SOUNDBITE) (English) HURRICANE SURVIVOR, RAVONNE HEPBURN, SAYING:
“My house gone, my car gone, I don’t have anything. Everything just…gone.”
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK BROWN:
"You also have some folks here looking for supplies. You have supply planes come in from time to time. We’ve seen the military here trying to keep the peace as people argue where these supplies need to go and who is in the most desperate need of supplies."
(SOUNDBITE) (English) HURRICANE SURVIVOR, LINDA LEFFLER, SAYING:
"No safety at all. I saw there's a lot of looting going on. I've heard people are walking around with guns, breaking into people's homes that still have homes. That's why we're leaving."
(SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED HURRICANE SURVIVOR SAYING:"It was bad. It wasn't good at all. It was scary. And I don't think anybody else would want to go what we've been through. The island's finished. It's finished."
Bahamian officials on Friday put the death told from the storm at at least 30. But that is expected to rise.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS REPORTER NICK BROWN:
"The government is sticking to a relatively low death toll. But one man who worked at a funeral home told me, look, I know what that smells like. There are hundreds. There are hundreds of dead bodies.”
And now, with tens of thousands of survivors in need of food, water and shelter… an international relief effort is underway.
Officials say thousands of people are still missing — many of them children — amid the devastation on the Northern islands.
