Waiting for Hurricane Dorian

September 2019 - As the storm approached, the residents of Eleuthera bought extra food, covered the windows with plywood and waited.

It turned out that the storm hit 90 miles to the north, and did not seriously impact Eleuthera.

But soon, thousands of evacuees from hardest-hit Abaco and Grand Bahama Island started fleeing on boats to Eleuthera, other family islands and the United States.

Transporting evacuees to Eleuthera

Thousands of evacuees came to Eleuthera via boat. The relief effort at Three Island Dock was organized by Steven Cartwright and North Eleuthera Member of Parliament Rickey Mackey.

Food, transportation, medical care, personal hygiene and data entry all had to be organized at the dock within 24 hours.

The evacuees arrive, and were given food, medical care and other assistance

Volunteers were ready for the boats as they arrived at the Three Island Dock. Some boats carried just a handful, others carried dozens.

The evacuees needed medical care and food right away. Volunteers also entered each evacuee's information into the Bahamas National Emergency Management database. That database was to help other survivors find loved ones and also so that the government could track residents.

Then, some evacuees with relatives on Eleuthera chose to stay. Other evacuees were put on another boat to Nassau.

Many evacuees were Haitian and Creole translators were critical.

Evacuees try to figure out what to do next

Many of the evacuees came to Eleuthera literally with the clothes they were wearing. Identification papers after a disaster are critical, but many were not able to grab theirs before fleeing for their lives. This is cousins Ydeus, Rosana and Jonel. They came to Eleuthera on a little boat with only Ydeus' passport. They evacuated to Nassau but then returned to Eleuthera to start a new life.

This family arrived in Eleuthera with the mom nine months pregnant. She was very close to her due date and was transferred to Nassau for medical care. They have decided to stay in Nassau, where relief volunteers found them an apartment.