Humanitarian crisis in Bahamas; 'Dorian' hits Canada – World

Nassau. Between evacuations, search for victims and health risks, Bahamas was preparing yesterday to face a long humanitarian crisis, a week after the devastating passage of Dorian, which also hit Canada and left half a million people without power in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the CTV channel reported.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) sent about a ton and a half of supplies for those affected in the Bahamas, a cargo that will allow the supply of drinking water to 9,500 families.

The Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization said that no island in the Bahamas has been quarantined, although floods can potentially increase the transmission of water-related contagious diseases. At the moment no case of cholera has been detected, nor has the number of infectious diseases increased.

Dorian He left at least 70,000 people homeless on the most severely affected islands, Abacus and Grand Bahama, according to the United Nations Organization (UN).

Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Nassau could not welcome all victims, which will temporarily be housed in tents.

Unicef ​​supplies are already in this capital, where they arrived by plane thanks to the transport of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They include more than 400 thousand water purification tablets, several 5,000 liter tanks to service at least 2,000 people and one thousand drums. The supplies will reach the affected communities in the coming days.

Nearly 18,000 children in the Abacus and Grand Bahama areas have been exposed to the impact of the hurricane and many urgently need humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said. These estimates are based on initial figures from the Agency for Emergency and Disaster Management in the Caribbean.

The agency stressed that it is urgent to raise $ 4 million to expand its humanitarian response and meet the most immediate needs of children: access to safe drinking water and sanitation, nutrition, psychosocial support and non-formal education activities.

After very slight effects on the United States coast, Dorian He continued his route to Canada, with strong gusts of up to 140 kilometers per hour, torrential rains and waves of almost 20 meters.

Reclassified as very intense postropical cyclone by the Canadian Hurricane Center, Dorian He made landfall on Saturday night in the province of Nova Scotia, where almost 400,000 homes were without power yesterday morning.

Nova Scotia Power Inc reported that 380,000 customers were without power. As the storm hit Prince Edward Island, about 50,000 homes and businesses soon ran out of light, as did 74,000 in New Brunswick.

Some 700 soldiers helped with the cleaning operations, while Dorian it moved over the gulf of San Lorenzo.

There are dead everywhere, say inhabitants of the Abaco Islands. Thousands go to Nassau or the US

Marsh Harbor. Almost a week after Dorian, the most powerful hurricane recorded in the northwest of the Bahamas, made landfall, the city of Marsh Harbor in the Abaco Islands seemed deserted. A warm wind blew through the collapsed houses, the streets plunged into deep silence showed a bleak landscape full of crushed cars, cut electric wires and broken trees.

There are dead everywhere, the bodies are still lying in the streets, declared survivors of the hurricane in the Abaco Islands, while trying to leave their locality, deprived of water and electricity, where the waste accumulated in the middle of the rubble under intense heat.

The Bahamas government reported yesterday that more than 900 members of the police and military forces of the archipelago were already in the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama to help with relief and recovery.

The authorities added that 120 members of the Jamaican security forces arrived in Bahamas on Saturday afternoon and about 100 elements of Trinidad and Tobago did it yesterday, as part of the relief work after the destruction of Dorian.

Bahamas authorities said that security forces elements Great Britain and the United States were already involved in search, rescue and recovery operations.

The government said at least 43 people died in the storm, but authorities are still trying to search in some areas that were isolated by flooding.

Eight people died in Grand Bahama and 35 in Abaco, said Prime Minister Hubert Minnis.

The United Nations Organization (UN) estimates that 76 thousand people are in danger of suffering from disease and hunger. The Red Cross said 45 percent of homes in some areas are severely damaged or destroyed. The total catastrophe could be 7 billion dollars, according to surveyors.

The UN sent eight tons of supplies. The shipment shipped by sea includes some 14,700 ready-to-eat meals, as well as logistics and telecommunications equipment, said Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the UN World Food Program. But the needs are still huge, Verhoosel lamented.

The US Coast Guard said it had rescued 290 people in the north of the archipelago after the hurricane. Six MH-60 helicopters Jayhawk and nine boats helped with relief, according to the Coast Guard.

There were no official figures available, but much of the population of Marsh Harbor, where the majority of the approximately 20,000 inhabitants of Abaco lived, seemed to have already left. Many stayed with relatives in the capital, Nassau, some with relatives in Florida and other cities in the United States.