Dorian moves towards US coast as 7 die in Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas: Hurricane Dorian churned towards the United States on Wednesday after leaving seven dead in the Bahamas, where the prime minister said terrified residents had endured “days of horror” at the hands of the monster storm.

Aerial footage showed scenes of catastrophic damage with hundreds of homes missing roofs, cars submerged or overturned, widespread flooding and boats reduced to matchwood. Harrowing accounts emerged, with one survivor describing how he had watched his wife drown.

Announcing the updated death toll, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned the number would rise as he called Dorian “one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history”, saying: “Parts of Abaco are decimated. There’s severe flooding, there’s severe damage to homes, businesses, other buildings and infrastructure.”

Bahamas residents “endured hours and days of horror, fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones,” Minnis said. As the storm moved away from the islands, more accounts of the suffering it inflicted emerged.

The online Bahamas Press published video of flooding in the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport and said patients had been forced to evacuate the facility. The US Coast Guard sent helicopters to Andros Island in the southern Bahamas to help with search and rescue operations as residents trapped in their homes by floodwaters issued distress calls.

But the runways at Grand Bahama International Airport in the island’s largest city Freeport were under water, complicating rescue efforts.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the core of the storm “will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast and the Georgia coast through Wednesday night.”

Dorian would move “near or over” the South and North Carolina coasts on Thursday through Friday morning. President Donald Trump warned people against complacency.