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(CNN) - Adrian Farrington struggled to stay afloat with his 5-year-old son after Hurricane Dorian hit his home on Abaco Island in northwestern Bahamas. They clung to each other, surrounded by rising waves and lots of floating debris.
After an hour of walking in the water with his broken leg, Farrington, 38, saw fins peeking nearby, he told the Nassau Guardian newspaper. He took his son and placed him on a roof for safety, away from the dangers lurking in the water. He implored the boy to shut his mouth, stop crying and keep breathing, he said.
But before he could climb onto the roof to support Adrian Farrington Jr., a hurricane blast dragged the boy into the swell. That was the last time he saw him.
Adrian Farrington and his son, Adrian Jr.
"I can still remember that he was looking for me and calling me 'dad'," said the father grieving the newspaper at the local hospital in the capital of Nassau, where he is receiving treatment for his broken leg and arm.
He jumped into the water to save his son
As soon as the storm surge swallowed his son, Farrington pushed the rubble and ran to the other side of the roof, from where Adrian had vanished into the murky waters. He dived underwater and searched with his hands, hoping to feel his skin or his clothes, he told the newspaper.
“I can't find anything. Then I come back. I hold my breath and go back down, "he said." During all this time, people took my wife to a safe place and they called me, but I didn't want to go because I didn't want to leave my son. "
After an exhausting search with no sign of the child, he moved to higher ground. He said he hopes his son will be found alive, but fears the worst.
“What I saw when I lost it, anything could happen. There were sharks swimming in the water, anything could happen, ”he told the newspaper. "A 5-year-old boy in that kind of search doesn't have many possibilities."
Rescuers scour the waters in search of survivors after one of the most powerful hurricanes that has hit the Caribbean razed houses and entire neighborhoods, with a balance of at least 30 dead in the Bahamas.
Hurricane Dorian
