Article Published

Article_bahamas-dorian-first-responders-arrive-palm-beach

Feature News | Friday, September 20, 2019

'They have lost absolutely everything'

First responders return from Bahamas after post Hurricane Dorian missions

Hector Mendez of Mexico City, center, speaks to a fellow search-and-rescue volunteer after arriving at the Port of Palm Beach Sept. 18. He was among the first responders and search-and-rescue volunteers and professionals from the U.S. and Latin America who embarked on a mission in the northern Bahamas in response to the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands Sept. 1-3, causing historic devastation. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, carrying some 400 volunteers and 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

Hector Mendez of Mexico City, center, speaks to a fellow search-and-rescue volunteer after arriving at the Port of Palm Beach Sept. 18. He was among the first responders and search-and-rescue volunteers and professionals from the U.S. and Latin America who embarked on a mission in the northern Bahamas in response to the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands Sept. 1-3, causing historic devastation. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, carrying some 400 volunteers and 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees.

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian on the Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line . The ship also brought along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian on the Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line . The ship also brought along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands causing historic devastation Sept. 1-3. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands causing historic devastation Sept. 1-3. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

One of Mexico City's famous Los Topos ("the Moles"), which formed spontaneously in response to the deadly 1985 earthquake that flattened 30,000 buildings in Mexico City and killed thousands, arrives in the Port of Palm Beach Sept. 18.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

One of Mexico City's famous Los Topos ("the Moles"), which formed spontaneously in response to the deadly 1985 earthquake that flattened 30,000 buildings in Mexico City and killed thousands, arrives in the Port of Palm Beach Sept. 18.

PORT OF PALM BEACH | An expert in disaster search-and-rescue who recently concluded a 13-day post-Hurricane Dorian operation in the Bahamas said that if there are scores of undiscovered fatalities there, their bodies were likely claimed by the sea.

The government of the Bahamas said the official death toll following Dorian has reached 50, but hundreds remain officially listed as missing while search-and-rescue teams continue to comb through widespread wreckage.

“An old man was looking for his grandchild, but we couldn’t find the boy and the fisherman said that the water was so high that many of the bodies went into the ocean,” said Hector Mendez, one of Mexico City’s famous Los Topos (“the Moles”), which formed spontaneously in response to the deadly 1985 earthquake that flattened 30,000 buildings in Mexico City and killed thousands. 

“Our specialty is to go inside the buildings when they fall down, and working in the sun and swamp was very hard on us but we stayed there and we did find one (deceased) lady inside the middle of a building,” said Mendez, who spoke with the Florida Catholic after catching a ride to Florida on the Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line. 

The company, through its Mission Resolve program formed in the wake of Dorian, concluded its second humanitarian mission Sept. 18 by providing transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, and back, carrying some 400 volunteers and 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees. 

Mendez added that his team of four Central Americans had arrived in the Bahamas by yacht and airplanes in order to join a larger group of 20 rescue professionals working on the east side of Grand Bahama Island. He said the 2010 Haiti earthquake presented a more devastating situation to work in, but that Hurricane Dorian was significantly devastating for key parts of the Bahamas 

“The east side (of Grand Bahama) which was completely destroyed; the hurricane was there for 40 hours smashing everything,” Mendez said.

He was heading back to Mexico City for a three-day training but said his organization was likely to send a fresh team and search dogs to the Bahamas, probably to the hard-hit Abaco Island. 

Still, Mendez said, his instincts tell him there may not be much to discover in the rubble there. 

“We had the dogs with us, and I am 35 years working on this all over the world and I know how it smells and we couldn’t smell it,” Mendez said of the search for the deceased.

Also returning from the Bahamas on the cruise ship was Richard Raines, retired from the U.S. Air Force and recently retired from the City of Margate Fire Rescue Services. He said his team helped clear debris from wrecked homes and provided medical support and compassionate outreach with a Christian-based team of disaster volunteers. 

“I have been through all the hurricanes locally including Hurricane Andrew (in 1992) and it was just as bad,” Raines said. “The water line was up high and there were a lot of tragic stories, but I have to say that the people were the most positive.”

Raines noted that long-term relief and rebuilding coordination is what is most needed in the Bahamas now. 

“You can give somebody water and you give them food but they will be hungry again and they will be thirsty again; but we can give them living water and they won’t thirst again and they will have hope for tomorrow,” he said, adding that the Florida cruise ship transportation provided a good point of reference for coordinating team efforts. 

“As you are going over on the ship you are able to talk to other people and find out other groups that are helping out and you find other ways you can help as well,” Raines said. “You aren’t standing around talking, you can actually do something.”

John Marshall, an electrical engineer from Mobile, Alabama, came with a team of Christian volunteers from around the U.S. He drew some comparisons to his first-hand experience working in Puerto Rico in 2017 after Hurricane Maria. 

Marshall said he felt called to be on the ground after seeing the post-Dorian images in the Bahamas. 

“First we meet basic needs, including solar lights, water filtration, food,” he said. “The electrical system on the Bahamas is in much better shape than in Puerto Rico – except for east of the canal in Grand Bahama, where it was just total devastation. Freeport is coming online very quickly, but in San Juan, the capital, eight months after the hurricane there was no electricity and water was very spotty.”

Water filtration is a huge need in the Bahamas, he noted. 

But because the devastation in the Bahamas was contained to a much smaller area than in Puerto Rico, and because it is so close to Florida, the area will recover much more quickly, according to Marshall. 

“Three weeks from now when the Bahamas is off the news, that is when it will get critical for the Bahamas: people forget about it and it falls off the press radar screen but they will still need food and still need water and so many people have lost absolutely everything,” he said. “They are sleeping in cars, friends have taken them (in). Repairing houses is going to be huge. 

“What impressed me about these people is that they started self-help and cleaning out their houses but they do need their electrical systems fixed,” Marshall added.

At a press conference Sept. 18, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line CEO Oneil Khosa said his company, which operates in conjunction with the seaport in Freeport, is not sure if it can continue the humanitarian trips to and from the Bahamas but that he felt sending two ships over since Hurricane Dorian was the right thing to do.”

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands causing historic devastation Sept. 1-3. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

More than 200 visa-carrying Bahamas evacuees arrived Sept. 18 at the Port of Palm Beach following the category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which slammed into the islands causing historic devastation Sept. 1-3. The Florida-based Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line concluded its second humanitarian round trip mission by providing the transportation from Florida to Freeport, Grand Bahama, bringing along some 400 volunteers, first responders and search & rescue workers.


Powered by Parish Mate | E-system

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply