After the deadly devastation caused by hurricane "Dorian" in the Bahamas, 70 German marines are to take part in a military relief operation. The men and women were on the Dutch dock landing ship "Johan de Witt", the course on the Bahamas take, it said on Friday from the Ministry of Defense in Berlin. The ship, a helicopter carrier, lies in front of the Caribbean island of St. Martin and receives cargo and material at the weekend. It is particularly well equipped for a relief mission. It should expire at the latest on Monday.
Originally, the German soldiers were to take part in a naval maneuver in the Caribbean in the coming weeks with the Dutch crew of the ship. According to the German Armed Forces, the Dutch government decided "in the short term to relocate the" Johan de Witt "to the disaster area due to the current emergency in the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, the residents of an island affected by "Dorian" are stuck in the US state of North Carolina. The state governor, Roy Cooper, said there was "serious concern about hundreds of people trapped on the island of Ocracoke. Salvage teams stand ready but could not reach Ocracoke until the storm clears, Cooper said. On pictures of the island heavy floods were to be seen.
This is heartbreaking.
A viewer is reading these pictures from Ocracoke. #HurricaneDorian
: Samantha Myde || @ wnct9 pic.twitter.com/jxWz9nF2Yes
The hurricane crossed the Outer Banks archipelago on Friday morning. Nearly 1000 people live on the associated island of Ocracoke. At first it was not clear why they had not sought protection in the interior of the country before the arrival of the storm, as ordered by the authorities. In the coastal areas of North Carolina were about 200,000 households without electricity because of the storm.
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Also just under a hundred kilometers north of Ocracoke located island Nags Head was flooded
"Dorian" hit the US coast as the hurricane of category five, bringing wind speeds up to 150 kilometers per hour. On Friday afternoon (local time), the storm was to move on again off the US coast in a northeasterly direction.
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The hurricane had previously raged in the Bahamas for almost three days, causing devastating damage. According to recent data, at least 30 people died. Health Minister Duane Sands told The Nassau Guardian radio station that the final death toll from the devastating hurricane in the Bahamas will be "overwhelming."
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Hurricane "Dorian" in the Bahamas: "Catastrophic Destruction"The rescue operations are slow because of catastrophic damage. The World Food Program (WFP) is currently preparing a food delivery for the many homeless. The agency bought the equivalent of around seven tons of finished dishes and organized the transport to the Bahamas, said the spokesman for Uno Secretary General António Guterres, Stephane Dujarric. There, the food should be distributed to tens of thousands of needy.
