Heartbreaking videos show the hours of terror experienced by residents in the Bahamas
Water continued to build in the Bahamas as Hurricane Dorian stalled over northern part of the islands, on Sept. 2. In Grand Bahama, the country's Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources had water come up at least 20 feet around his home.
In the midst of the emergency in the Bahamas archipelago, residents have turned to social media to document the disaster that has been overwhelming them as Hurricane Dorian has slowly pummeled the island nation.
The stagnation of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas brought unprecedented devastation: the destruction of more than 13,000 homes and at least five confirmed fatalities, including death of a young boy believed to be 7 or 8 years old.
"We have received catastrophic damage," said Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy of North Abaco, Darren Henfield. “We have reports of victims. We have reports of bodies seen. We cannot confirm those reports until we go and confirm for ourselves. "
Since early Monday, dozens of heartbreaking videos circulated showing people trapped in their homes, some forced to take refuge on the roof or at the top of the cabinets.
For the most part, the videos have been shared on Twitter by the local news outlet The Bahamas Press, which has posted the unedited content of residents of the Bahamas obtained through their social networks.
Although many of the shared videos do not offer specific information on where these events occurred, the strong feelings of despair and fear can be felt in each one.
"I need help. Me, my six grandchildren and my son . . . We are on the roof. The water rises," says a desperate woman crying for help in one video.
“Can someone come and rescue us? PLEASE! EVERYONE IS ON THE ROOF AND THE WATER IS INCREASING QUICKLY," a resident of Grand Bahama pleads.
Many of the videos are narrated by anonymous people who simply dedicate themselves to describing with deep sadness what they see and their ears hear.
Hurricane Dorian made its initial landfall at Elbow Cay, Abacos, in the Bahamas. The eye of Dorian then made a second landfall on Great Abaco Island near Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas. The third landfall came later on Sunday night with the eye encroaching the eastern end of Grand Bahama Island.
Maximum sustained winds were 185 mph during the first two landfalls, dropping to 180 mph for the third. Wind gusts of 225 mph, as AccuWeather Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer pointed out, were equivalent to the winds of an EF4 tornado.
In the U.S., as most Americans celebrated Labor Day, states of emergency were declared and millions were under evacuation orders from Florida to Georgia to North Carolina as the dangerous Hurricane Dorian, a Category 4 storm as of Monday evening, continued to grow in size as it looms off the Florida coast.
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