tag | Hurricane Dorian

The government has estimated that up to 10,000 people from the Abaco islands alone will need food, water and temporary housing as officials consider setting up tent or container cities while they clear the country’s ravaged northern region of debris so people can eventually return.

Food, water and other supplies are rapidly running out, and residents are waiting desperately to evacuate.

Steve Harris has lived on Ocracoke Island for most of the last 19 years. He’s ridden out eight hurricanes, but he said he’d never seen a storm bring such devastation to his community, which is accessible only by boat or air and is popular with tourists for its undeveloped beaches. “We just thought it was gonna be a normal blow,” Harris, a semi-retired contractor, said Friday. “But the damage is going to be severe this time. This is flooding of biblical proportions.”

“It’s a terrible way to live,” Debbie Pagan said. “We have the whole month of September and October to go. How would you like to be living on pins and needles?”