"People were dying in front of me," said one of the survivors of Hurricane Dorian

MARSH HARBOR.- Rollpenchy Pharisen lives in the islands
Bahamas. He is 20 years old, works in the construction sector and is one of the
survivors of the
hurricane Dorian, that at the beginning of the week
hit the country and left it in
ruins,
floodeddevastated with at least
43 dead and several
missing

Hurt but alive, he tells about what he lived: "Everything was flying through the air. My neighborhood has disappeared completely.
People were dying in front of me. There were dead babies. I had to escape from my house swimming, I have left everything behind. I only have it on. Now it's time to start again, "according to the newspaper
The country.
Like Pharisen there are hundreds of inhabitants of the islands that lost everything but are still alive after the passage of the hurricane, which reached the
maximum category of 5 but that touched down land barely weakened. Meanwhile, rescue teams try to reach some populations isolated by floods and debris. Eight people died on the Grand Bahama Island and 35 in Abaco, according to Prime Minister Hubert Minnis.

Daniel Box is another one who was able to escape the disaster. He is a physical trainer and is 30 years old. About the moment when the terrible hurricane winds touched his house he says: "When I woke up, the water reached my hips. I left the house as I could and left, at times walking, at times swimming, at the of my girlfriend, who was with our five-year-old daughter. I grabbed them and went to my father-in-law's house, who was the only one left standing. We ended up 35 people inside. We spent three days there, without food, without drinking water . Everything is destroyed. Staying would have been a death sentence. "
Box lives in Marsh Harbor, in the Abaco Islands. Now he is waiting for help in an impromptu tent next to a private airport of
Nassau, the capital of the country. He awaits to be notified in what precarious refuge he will live from now.

"Abacus is over. I've lost a lot of friends, but I'm happy because we're alive. Now we have to see what to do with our lives.
I dont have anything. Only the clothes I wear. I don't have money, I don't know how I'm going to take care of my family. We do not know where to start. You get far in life to suddenly lose everything. I don't know where I'm going to stay. I don't want to be a burden to anyone. I just aspire to have a roof for my daughter and my girlfriend. We have
hungry, we haven't eaten in three days more than cookies, "adds the 30-year-old.

Help

The United Nations Children's Fund (
UNICEF) sent about 1.5 tons of
supplies for those affected by the passage of the hurricane in the archipelago of the Bahamas, a cargo that will provide
drinking water to more than 9500 children and families.

The aid is already in Nassau, where they arrived by plane thanks to the transport of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They include more than 400,000 tablets of
water purification, several 5000 liter tanks to serve at least 2000 people and 1000 drums.
Approximately 18,000 children in the Abacus and Grand Bahama areas were affected by Dorian. The UNICEF evaluation team was on site and said they had witnessed "widespread devastation and destruction." In Marsh Harbor and its surroundings, there are schools and hospitals destroyed, houses and roads have collapsed and cars and boats are hanging in the treetops.

The most powerful hurricane that has ever hit the Bahamas razed the area earlier this week, crushing entire neighborhoods and destroying important infrastructure, including the airport's runways and a hospital.
Hundreds are still missing in the country of
400 thousand inhabitants and authorities say that the death toll is likely to skyrocket as more bodies are discovered in the ruins and floods left by the storm.

Reuters, DPA and AP agencies

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