The year 2019 saw devastating wildfires in the west, rising sea levels on the Gulf coast, melting permafrost in Alaska and a destructive hurricane in the neighboring Bahamas. But the year to April 2019 had also been the US’s wettest 12 months since records began as extremes became the norm
Continue reading...Category Archives: Bahamas
Reporting on Hurricane Dorian: ‘It was a scene of complete devastation’
New York reporter recalls challenges of covering a disaster as huge as the category 5 storm that ripped through the Bahamas
How do you start an interview with someone who has just lost everything?
With the floodwaters just receded, the stench of mould beginning to creep into the hollowed-out buildings that survived two days of pummelling winds, and bloated corpses still being recovered, that was a question I was forced to grapple with last week in the Bahamas.
Continue reading...‘The poor are punished’: Dorian lays bare inequality in the Bahamas
The tourist destination relies on a life support system of fishermen, hotel workers and laborers. They’ve been hardest hit
Holidaymakers queuing at immigration at the Bahamas’ Nassau airport are still serenaded by three pink-shirted men playing jovial music. They are still sunbathing on the beaches and still swimming in the sea. It is as if nothing has changed in paradise.
Yet 40 minutes away by plane, on the Abaco Islands, heaven turns to hell. The Mudd, a shantytown that was home to the Bahamas’ biggest Haitian immigrant community, has been obliterated by Hurricane Dorian as if by a massive bomb.
Continue reading...Bahamas: new storm threatens Hurricane Dorian relief efforts
Tropical Storm Humberto expected to drop up to 15cm of rain as operation to provide food and shelter continues
A tropical storm carrying heavy rain and strong winds is nearing the already devastated Bahamas, threatening to complicate Hurricane Dorian recovery efforts as the UN secretary general arrived in the islands in a show of support.
The new weather system, known as Tropical Storm Humberto,is expected to drop up to 15cm (6 inches) of rain through the weekend in areas of the islands inundated by Dorian, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre.
Continue reading...Greta Thunberg joins young activists in climate protest outside White House – live
Swedish teen climate activist and other youth advocates demand action from the US to address the climate crisis
A Taliban negotiating team has reportedly arrived in Russia just days after Trump said potential peace talks with the group were “dead.”
The AP reports:
Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the delegation had held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan.
The visit also was confirmed to The Associated Press by a Taliban official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
This may well be the most terrifying thing you read on this Friday the 13th. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, told a group of donors last month that she got her moral compass from her father.
At a mid-August fundraiser in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Ivanka Trump was asked to name the personality traits she inherited most from her parents.
Without much of a pause, Trump told the crowd of roughly 120 high-end donors that her mother gave her an example of how to be a powerful, successful woman.
Continue reading...Hundreds of Bahamian evacuees ordered off boat due to lack of US visas
Crew said people without visas must disembark ferry to Florida because of CBP’s ‘last-minute call’ that they would not be admitted
More than a hundred Bahamian citizens desperate to escape the devastation of Hurricane Dorian were ordered off a ferry to Florida, sparking a dispute between US immigration officials and the operator of the vessel.
Related: Search for survivors of Hurricane Dorian continues in Bahamas
Continue reading...Bahamas sends 900 security personnel to hurricane-hit islands
- Government acts to avert profiteering in wake of disaster
- Officials still trying to reach areas cut off by floods and debris
The government of the Bahamas has sent 900 police and military personnel to the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama hardest hit by Hurricane Dorian, while taking action to stave off any profiteering by private sector rescue missions amid signs of chaos in some of the aid operations.
The destruction caused by the hurricane was still unfolding as a humanitarian and environmental disaster a week after it landed in the northern reaches of the Bahamas as a category 5 tempest.
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: thousands may still be missing as death toll hits 43
Rescuers battle to reach devastated communities as cruise ships arrive with supplies and volunteers
Rescue teams are still struggling to reach some flood-hit Bahamian communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian as top officials said the death toll had risen to 43, while it is feared hundreds, perhaps thousands, remain missing.
Government agencies and charities continued to bring desperately needed relief efforts to the Bahamas, including cruise ships loaded with supplies and volunteers.
Continue reading...‘The seas came up to our doors’: Hurricane Dorian leaves trail of destruction in Bahamas – video
The Bahamian health minister has said the public will need to prepare for ‘unimaginable information about the death toll’ as it continues to rise after Hurricane Dorian brought 185mph winds to the Caribbean nation. The UN ordered eight tons of ready-to-eat meals, and crews have begun clearing streets and setting up aid distribution centres. The storm, which has now weakened, is moving slowly north along the eastern US seaboard
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: 70,000 in ‘immediate need of lifesaving’ help in Bahamas – as it happened
- Republicans Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis head to Bahamas
- Category 1 storm makes landfall at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina
- ‘Everything is destroyed’: 30 dead in Bahamas as Dorian
We’re logging off here, but our reporters in the Bahamas and North Carolina will continue our Dorian coverage this weekend. Here’s a wrap up of everything that happened today:
Fears are growing that damage to a major oil storage terminal on the shore of Grand Bahama Island could cause oil to leak into the ocean, potentially damaging reefs and wildlife off the coast.
Absolutely CATASTROPHIC #oilspill in #GrandBahama from #HurricaneDorian at the #Statoil / @Equinor facility. Teams need to be here TODAY to a) prevent a fire from starting (oil across the highway where people are trying to help) b) stop any/all spillage to ocean and c) clean up pic.twitter.com/8u3e2BDYdY
Continue reading...‘It’s all gone’: shattered Bahamas counts cost of Hurricane Dorian’s destruction
Lashing rain, 185mph winds – the ferocious storm has left 43 dead and hundreds missing. Oliver Laughland reports from the rubble of Grand Bahama
As Erica Roberts clung to a tall mango tree, the winds and sea water churned up by Hurricane Dorian pounding her face, a single thought ran through her head: “I will not die like this.”
Related: 'I thought no one was coming to rescue us': Abaco Islanders flee Dorian's destruction
Continue reading...‘Everything is destroyed’: devastation in Bahamas as Dorian rattles US
- Aid groups struggle to deliver basic supplies due to destruction
- Category 2 storm with winds of 110mph threatens US coastline
After hammering the Bahamas and leaving at least 30 dead, Hurricane Dorian began raking the south-east US seaboard, with the eye hitting the North Carolina coast on Thursday evening.
The threat to the US remains real but in the Bahamas the storm has left such terrible devastation that the authorities were still struggling to get aid to stricken areas and the death toll is expected to rise, perhaps steeply.
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: ‘We’re at the frontline of climate change but we don’t cause it’, says Barbados PM – live
- Caribbean leaders fly to Bahamas to see Dorian’s destruction
- Mia Mottley, PM of Barbados, urges action to help islands
- ‘Generational devastation’ in Bahamas, says prime minister
Sarah St George, chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, told the Guardian that the “force and size” of Dorian took everyone by surprise, a situation made worse by the hurricane stalling over the archipelago.
“Grand Bahama is not in good shape at all because 70% of it was under water,” St George said. “On the north side of the island the water was coming up to the second floor of their houses. My assistant Tammy was on the roof of her house for 30 hours hanging on to a coconut tree with her 8-year-old daughter Ariana. Her grandmother lost her grip and slipped off the roof and drowned. There was no way of getting to them. They’ve lost everything.”
In the president’s continuing battle against his own incorrect statement that Alabama was under threat from Hurricane Dorian, which has left at least 23 people dead, he has just now been tweeting what he claims is evidence he knew what he was talking about.
It is not.
Just as I said, Alabama was originally projected to be hit. The Fake News denies it! pic.twitter.com/elJ7ROfm2p
I was with you all the way Alabama. The Fake News Media was not! https://t.co/gO5pwahaj9
Over the weekend, projections for #HurricaneDorian have continually skewed further north and east, leaving Alabama outside the anticipated path. While we are thankful for that, we remain #AlwaysReady to help our sister states. #OneTeamOneFight #OneGuard pic.twitter.com/7TbFKpd2Zh
Continue reading...‘I thought no one was coming to rescue us’: Abaco Islanders flee Dorian’s destruction
Hurricane Dorian destroyed most property on the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas, forcing residents to leave everything behind
Kathlyn Russell collapsed on the concrete, tears streaming, as she embraced the daughter she feared she would never see again.
Related: Hurricane Dorian: 'generational devastation' in Bahamas, says PM
Continue reading...Twenty dead in Bahamas after Dorian leaves ‘generational devastation’
Officials expect the number of dead will continue to rise as large parts of some islands remain inaccessible to rescue crews
The official death toll of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has risen to 20 people with officials certain the number will continue to rise, the prime minister, Hubert Minnis, announced as he declared a “historic tragedy” on the archipelago.
At a press conference late on Wednesday the prime minister also warned of reports of looting on the Abaco Islands, a northern band of islands in the Bahamas hardest hit by Dorian, which pummelled the area as a slow moving category 5 hurricane over the weekend.
Continue reading...Aerial footage from Bahamas shows Hurricane Dorian destruction – video
Aerial footage taken on Wednesday shows utter devastation in Marsh Harbour, one of the first places in the Bahamas ravaged by Hurricane Dorian. The video recorded over the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island showed mile upon mile of flooded neighbourhoods, pulverised buildings, upturned boats and shipping containers scattered like toys. Many buildings that had not been flattened had walls or roofs partly ripped away. “We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” said the Bahamian prime minister, Hubert Minnis. “The devastation is unprecedented and extensive.”
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: aerial footage reveals extent of devastation in Bahamas – as it happened
Video shows the scale of catastrophe as the storm continues to move away from the Bahamas and towards Florida
- Full story: five confirmed dead in Bahamas
- ‘It’s vicious’: terrified Bahamians wait for Dorian to pass
Kari Paul logging off for the evening. Please stay tuned tomorrow for more updates as Dorian reaches the US coast and the picture of effects on the Bahamas become clearer.
Here are the latest updates from this afternoon:
The death toll for Hurricane Dorian climbed to seven, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said on Tuesday night, according to CNN. The death toll, which was at five earlier in the day, has been expected to climb as survivors of the natural disaster face ongoing food and medicine shortages.
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: officials worldwide seek aid amid ‘historic tragedy’ in Bahamas
Thousands left without shelter and likely to face food and water shortages, say UN, US and local authorities
US officials and counterparts around the world sent out an urgent call for help for the Bahamas after the northernmost islands in the archipelago were pulverized by Hurricane Dorian.
Thousands of residents of Grand Bahama and Abaco islands are without shelter, stranded by flooding and are likely to suffer shortages of food, water and medicine that will worsen without quick action by the international community, according to coordinated messages from the United Nations, the US state department, the US embassy in Nassau and local officials.
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian: devastation and destruction in the Bahamas – in pictures
Images show the extent of flooding in cities including Nassau due to the hurricane, which has left at least 30 dead
Continue reading...Hurricane Dorian batters Bahamas with severe flash floods and ferocious wind – video report
The storm has stalled over the Bahamas, lashing the islands with wind, rain and storm surges, and killing at least five people. Thousands of homes were inundated with floodwater as rescue operations tried to reach stranded residents, many trapped on roofs. Dorian has now weakened to a category-2 hurricane but expanded in size as it heads towards the US.
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