- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - While the Grand Celebration cruise ship sailed from the Bahamas on a humanitarian mission carrying nearly 1,500 evacuees from Hurricane Dorian, Ceva Seymour looked at the hundreds of desperate Bahamians left in the port of Freeport.
"It was hard for me to see that other people couldn't get on the ship that probably needed to be there more than me," said Seymour, 56, after arriving in Florida with more than a dozen of his cousins and grandchildren.
Seymour, his relatives and all who remained are among the 70,000 people left homeless in Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands by the strongest hurricane that hit the nation of the archipelago of some 390,000 residents.
- Dorian walks away, but more tropical storms are brewing on both sides of the United States
The death toll, now at 43, remains unknown a week after the category 5 storm, but government officials warn that it will be much higher.
Dorian was delayed on the islands during days with winds of approximately 185 mph (298 km / h). It crushed homes, schools, supermarkets, roads and airports at the northern end of the Bahamas. Tens of thousands of stunned and exhausted survivors were left in the ruins. The most desperate seek refuge in the terminals and ports of the airport.
"It was really hard to get in the boat," Seymour said. "I never thought I would be in this situation."
Evacuees from Freeport, Bahamas, rest on board the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas cruise ship on Saturday, September 7, 2019. The ship delivered thousands of boxes of bottled water and food to Freeport early Saturday morning.
The number of displaced is amazing
Tens of thousands of people have lost their homes in Abacus and Grand Bahama, according to the United Nations. A thousand tarps would be distributed to replace the roofs, said the International Organization for Migration.
The number of displaced people is staggering, given the population of the Bahamas, but it is not unusual for a major environmental disaster, according to María Cristina García, a professor of history at Cornell University. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti left 1.5 million people homeless.
"These 70,000 do not include the thousands who, although technically homeless, will live in damaged houses covered only by blue plastic tarps," he said.
"You can still find blue tarps in (US Virgin Islands) and Puerto Rico two years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria."
Search and rescue teams with rescue dogs rummage through the rubble on the Abaco Islands. The human remains they find are placed in body bags and refrigerators.
Marsh Harbor is the largest city in the Abacos and one of the most affected. A truck delivered at least two bodies to an impromptu morgue on Saturday. Funerals told CNN that the difficulty in reaching the dead was slowing their work. Diving equipment was needed to recover many submerged bodies, they said.
"There are dead animals and gasoline in the water," said Elizabeth Nixon, who evacuated to Nassau but waited to reunite with her children. “The clinic was so bad that the toilets overflowed. The sewers are going up ... there are bodies in the harbor. It seems we are in a movie. ”
Nearby, in the city of Mudd, the devastation is so complete, the houses completely destroyed, it is difficult for residents to locate where their homes were.
Local authorities believe there are people buried under the rubble, but they have no way of knowing how many or when they will be able to reach them.
In Marsh Harbor, the US Coast Guard staff. and Miami paramedics discovered this weekend the body of a woman buried in layers of debris, in a scene that is likely to be repeated in the coming days and weeks.
"You could literally smell death in the air when the water dries and the sun rises," said survivor Sharon Rolle. His house, his entire neighborhood, in the Abacos, was destroyed, he said.
"There is nothing here," he said. "Actually, we're sitting in a car now trying to figure out what the next step is."
"I don't see the authorities around"
The powerful storm seems to have overwhelmed the authorities in the small island nation, leaving most of the first aid efforts in the hands of non-profit organizations in the Bahamas and US aid agencies.
"I don't feel safe," Rolle said. “I don't see the authorities around. They say they are here, but honestly I don't see them ... there is a lot of chaos. Abacus is demolished. It's finished. We need help".
The United States Agency for International Development announced this weekend an additional $ 1 million in humanitarian assistance, raising US agency funds to $ 2.8 million for food, shelter, water containers and other articles. Your partner, the Bahamas Red Cross, will also distribute supplies that include portable stoves and towels. USAID also has teams of experts in disaster response in the field.
The UN provided another million dollars.
“This is already a humanitarian crisis; It does not need to become a refugee crisis if displaced survivors can find refuge near their original communities or in less affected parts of the Bahamas, ”said Anne Richard, who served as Undersecretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration in the Obama administration.
Florida senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have asked the Trump administration to waive visa requirements for displaced Bahamian citizens with close relatives in the United States.
Environmental migrants are not covered by the Geneva Convention on the status of refugees, which protects people fleeing persecution, war or violence.
Jacqueline Bhabha, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said there are strong humanitarian reasons to temporarily admit displaced Bahamians in the US. as was done after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998.
“They are not really, it is not strictly about refugees, but they are people who need protection and who may well need protection and who may need shelter outside their country,” he said.
"Basically we are starting from scratch"
The Bahamians continue to gather in suffocating airports and docks for flights or transfers to the country's capital. Others expect cruises to Florida.
Most of the evacuees who arrived in Palm Beach on a cruise ship were picked up by family members or provided transportation to reach their loved ones in the area. But 50 will be housed in a shelter, Palm Beach County officials said.
The Red Cross and United Way, with Palm Beach County agencies, provided clothing, hygiene kits, wellness and mental health services at the shelter, the county said.
Of the 1,435 evacuees aboard the cruise, 539 are US citizens or legal permanent residents, the US Customs and Border Protection Office said. The others included 857 Bahamians and 39 evacuees of other nationalities.
"The first place they turn to is their own social networks," said Jeremy Konyndyk, who was director of the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at the Obama administration. “Do you have relatives in another place? Do they have friends who can accommodate them temporarily? ”
Seymour, who arrived in Florida on a humanitarian cruise with 16 cousins and grandchildren, will stay with a sister in Port St. Lucie for now.
"I love the Bahamas," he said. “I love my home. I hope you can get things going. But I know it will take a while because we are basically starting from scratch. ”
Rosa Flores, Gary Tuchman and Paula Newton, all from CNN, contributed to this report.
Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian