Hurricane Dorian has left a trail of death and massive destruction in the Bahamas with aerial images showing a major level of destruction on the ground. Eight people are confirmed dead but officials say that number is likely to rise once search and rescue missions get underway.
The hurricane remained over the north-west Bahamas for one and a half days, before weakening and moving away towards the coast of Florida.
The UN relief chief who heads up the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Mark Lowcock, traveled to the Bahamas on Wednesday to help assess what is needed from the international community and said this is “unprecedented disaster ‘of epic proportions’ to ever hit the country.
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, down the line from the Bahamas late on Wednesday, Mr. Lowcock said that the damage was on an “enormous scale” causing “vast devastation” and leaving around 70,000 in need of life-saving aid on the two islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco.
He told the Bahamian Prime Minister that he would release $1 million “immediately, from the Central Emergency Response Fund, to deal with exactly the set of priorities that he has identified”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his part said: “People who have lost everything urgently need shelter, safe drinking water, food and medicine.”
He called on donors to provide emergency funding for the humanitarian response and recovery efforts, “as soon as the requirements are known.”
