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WORLD NEWS Monday 9 SepteMber 2019

Silence, devastation mark Bahamas

town; but some are staying

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN ready-to-eat meals as well on his hurricane shutters,
Associated Press as logistical and telecom- he used long screws on as
MARSH HARBOUR, Baha- munications equipment many as possible to fix the
mas (AP) — The streets are are being delivered, said shutters tight to the window
filled with smashed cars, Herve Verhoosel, spokes- frame.
snapped power cables, man for the U.N. World When Dorian hit, it only
shattered trees and deep Food Program. managed to rip away the
silence. “The needs remain enor- shutters with store-bought
At the airport and dock, mous,” Verhoosel said. clips, and a few sections of
hundreds of people clam- No official figures were shingles, leaving some of
or for seats on airplanes available, but much of the the Blatch family’s posses- This Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019 photo provided by UNICEF shows
and berths on ships arriv- population of Marsh Har- sions wet but the structure damage caused by Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour on Great
ing with aid and departing bour, home to most of the and furnishings intact. Abaco Island of the Bahamas.
with people who lost their roughly 20,000 residents of So Blatch has power from Associated Press
homes when deadly Hurri- Abaco, seemed to have a generator, drinking wa- Russell said, he can live on ment operator, is living in
cane Dorian struck the Ba- already left. Many were ter, food and the help of his fishing and gardening. His his sister’s house with other
hamas. staying with relatives in the son-in-law, 25-year-old Mo- little garden of onion, to- relatives whose homes
Nearly a week after disas- capital, Nassau, others with ses Monestine. mato and banana plants were destroyed. They are
ter roared in from the sea, family in Florida and other “I don’t have a mortgage. was destroyed, but he surviving on water and
the rest of Marsh Harbour parts of the United States. I don’t want to go to Nas- plans to replant, and even food donated by Bahami-
on Abaco island felt empty In Marsh Harbour’s Murphy sau,” he said. “I don’t want add soursop, mango and an officials and aid workers
Saturday. A hot wind whis- Town neighborhood, on a to go to the United States. sugar apple. Others were who pass by daily.
tled through stands of de- hill overlooking the azure I don’t want to depend on more stuck than deter- “We might as well stay here
capitated pine trees and sea, Jackson Blatch and anyone.” mined. Sterling McKenzie, and battle it out,” he said.
homes that collapsed dur- his son-in-law were already Abacoans, as island resi- a 67-year-old retired equip- “I ain’t got no choice.”q
ing the most powerful hur- rebuilding. In a blazing mid- dents are known, describe
ricane in the northwestern day sun they stripped dam- themselves as a self-suffi-
Bahamas’ recorded history. aged shingles from Blatch’s cient and resourceful, used
Rescue teams were still try- roofs and tossed them into to making their living from
ing to reach some Baha- his truck, parked below the the sea. Blocks and even
mian communities isolated eaves of a home he built entire neighborhoods are
by floodwaters and debris by hand. Like a few other taken up by extended
after the disaster that killed Abaco residents, Blatch is families — a cousin next
at least 44 people, most of staying on an island pulver- door to a brother next door
them on Abaco Island. ized by nature. to a sister-in-law, forming in-
The U.S. Coast Guard said “Everybody says, ‘Leave.’ stant support networks that
it has rescued a total of Leave and go where?” went into action ahead of
290 people in the northern Blatch asked. “My plan is to the storm. Many Abacoans
Bahamas following the hur- rebuild this island. I have a work on ships or docks, oth-
ricane. Six MH-60 Jayhawk lot to offer.” ers at the second homes
helicopters and nine cut- Unlike almost every other that wealthy Americans
ters are helping in the aid home on Abaco, Blatch’s have built throughout the
effort, the Coast Guard house had little damage. long, curving island.
said. He is a builder who prides Brian Russell, 55, is a ma-
With so much air traffic, Ba- himself on quality work. rine engineer who has lived
hamaian officials banned When mixing concrete, he through three hurricanes
non-aid flights over Grand never skimps, always pre- on sea and many others on
Bahama and Abaco Is- cisely blending the recom- land.
lands. The National Emer- mended amounts of ce- In his home in the Dundas
gency Management ment, sand and gravel for Town neighborhood, he
agency also threatened floors, columns and ceil- has six months of drinking
to revoke flight permission ings. water and four months of
from any pilots charging When he poured his walls water for bathing. He has a
fees to evacuate people and floors, he laced them generator, and months of
from the islands. thick with rebar, construct- food.
Meanwhile, the United ing a powerful skeleton The destruction doesn’t de-
Nations said eight tons of that resisted the storm. ter him.
food supplies were on the Instead of using the man- Once the water contami-
way by ship. Some 14,700 ufacturer-provided clips nated by the storm is clean,