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Catherine Russel is greeted by loved ones after arriving with other survivors of Hurricane Dorian from Abaco island at Odyssey Aviation at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, New Providence, September 4, 2019. /VCG Photo
Updated at 7:30 a.m. BJT, Friday
The death toll from Hurricane Dorian has risen to 23 in the Bahamas, according to reports on Friday.
"Hundreds remain unaccounted for in the Bahamas," CNN reported citing a local official.
9:20 a.m. BJT, Thursday
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Dorian – and the terror it inflicted during its day-and-a-half mauling of the Bahamas – came into focus on Wednesday as the passing of the storm revealed a muddy, debris-strewn landscape of smashed and flooded-out homes on Abaco and Grand Bahama islands. The official death toll from the strongest hurricane on record ever to hit the country jumped to 20, and there was little doubt it would climb higher.
Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands said 17 of the dead were from the Abaco islands and three from Grand Bahama. He said he could not release further details because the government still had to contact family members.
The Bahamian government sent hundreds of police officers and marines into the stricken islands, along with doctors, nurses and other health care workers, in an effort to reach drenched and stunned victims and take the full measure of the disaster.
"Right now there are just a lot of unknowns," Parliament member Iram Lewis said. "We need help."
Read more: Hurricane warnings now stretch to the North Carolina-Virginia border
Destruction from Hurricane Dorian at Marsh Harbour in Great Abaco Island, Bahamas, September 4, 2019. /VCG Photo
With a now-distant Dorian pushing its way up the Southeastern U.S. coast, menacing Georgia and the Carolinas, many people living in the Bahamas were in shock as they slowly came out of shelters and checked on their homes.
In one community, George Bolter stood in the bright sunshine and surveyed the ruins of what was once his home. He picked at the debris, trying to find something, anything, salvageable. A couple of walls were the only thing left.
"I have lost everything," he said. "I have lost all my baby's clothes, my son's clothes. We have nowhere to stay, nowhere to live. Everything is gone."
The storm pounded the Bahamas with Category 5 winds up to 295 kilometers per hour and torrential rains, swamping neighborhoods in brown floodwaters and destroying or severely damaging, by one estimate, nearly half the homes in Abaco and Grand Bahama, which have 70,000 residents and are known for their marinas, golf courses and all-inclusive resorts.