The death toll in the Bahamas has risen to 30.
Hurricane Dorian was one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record when it hovered over the Bahamas earlier in the week. Now that it has moved away, a fuller picture from the ground has begun to emerge, and with it, harrowing stories of survival.
As officials were taking stock of the storm’s toll — at least 30 people were dead, the government announced Thursday night — relatives of some residents of the Abaco Islands, in the north of the archipelago, were reconnecting with their loved ones.
Sandra Cooke, a resident of Nassau, said that during the storm, a roof on an Abaco Islands building had collapsed on her sister-in-law. Her brother could not find his wife at first, but the family dog eventually detected her in the rubble. When there was a break in the storm, neighbors helped free her.
Ms. Cooke was reunited with her sister-in-law on Tuesday.
“She was trapped under the roof for 17 hours,” Ms. Cooke said on Wednesday, adding that she had hired a private helicopter service to take the rescued woman to Nassau.
[Read more about the stories of survival, and of loss, in the Bahamas.]
How The Times is covering Hurricane Dorian.
The New York Times has half a dozen correspondents on the ground covering Hurricane Dorian from locations including the Bahamas, the Carolinas and Florida. You can follow our correspondents on social media: Patricia Mazzei, Richard Fausset, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Frances Robles and Kirk Semple.
The Times has published live updates for the past 11 days, as Hurricane Dorian blew through the Virgin Islands but largely spared Puerto Rico, then built up strength and devastated the Bahamas, before moving toward the United States mainland. Here is the latest map tracker and tips on how to stay safe.
We are continuing to cover the destruction in the Bahamas and how members of the Bahamian diaspora in Miami are scrambling to send aid to those affected by the storm and to locate their loved ones in the islands. If you would like to help, we have an article about on how to do that.
