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At first, we didn’t consider Hurricane Dorian to be a threat. It was only a Category 1. We weren’t ready for a Category 5, or its destruction. No one was.
We have hurricanes each year, and when you hear what category the storm is, you prepare appropriately. For a Category 1 or 2, my family usually shelters in place. It was only when Dorian became a Category 3, that we started to take it seriously. When a storm is Category 1 or 2, we plan to stay at home. For anything higher than a Category 2, we leave!
My family’s house is really close to the coast, so we decided to leave due to the possibility of flooding. Two days out from the storm hitting, the whole island started to get frantic and we began boarding up windows, going out to the store to stock up on canned goods, water, flashlights, and emergency supplies.
The Hurricane Makes Landfall
My dad works at a hotel, and he got us a room, but since it was near the beach and the water, I decided to go to higher ground at my Grandma’s house in the center of the island, where it doesn’t flood. On the day the hurricane hit, we were prepared for a Category 5, as much as we could. We didn’t have an escape plan, as we were already on a hill in the middle of the island. Our only plan was to go to the neighbor if our roof blew off (or they would come to us, if theirs did.)
On the second day of the storm, I got a text from a friend, asking if I was at my grandma’s house. The text said, "The water is coming. You need to get out NOW!" I was shocked as it never floods in the center of the island, but they repeated the warning saying "the water was already at the church" (down the street from my Grandma’s house)! I opened the door just in time to see the water raging down our street. It came so fast, we didn’t have time to step out of the door. The winds were 222 mph, and I had to get my family a short ways from the front door to my car.
It was HELL walking in those winds and with the water rising all around us. By the time we got to the car, the water was already up to the top of the tires, but we opened the car doors anyway, and the salt water washed in. Somehow, I was able to get my Grandma, my two cousins (12 and 16), and my auntie in the car with all that wind and water. It was surreal driving through deep water. At one point the car felt like it was floating, but as soon as the tires meet a hard surface, I pressed down the gas pedal and went!
We headed uphill to avoid the water and flooding and soon saw a church. We hoped someone was there and would let us in. As soon as we got into sight of the door, people immediately came running out of the church to help us. It took 4 people to help get everyone in my car into the church with the winds. The church was an ‘unofficial shelter’, meaning there was no food, water, beds, or kitchen. We left in such a hurry, I didn’t grab our food and water bag, so I only had the clothes on my back and my passport.
Soon, new groups of people arrived at the church drenched, crying, soaked and shocked. The total number of people in the church quickly grew to over 300 people. We were sleeping on the floor and on the pews. We all had to pool our food and water resources to survive. Someone handed me a package of cookies and some water, which I shared with my family. We all shared what we had. I had a generator in the back of my car, and several others had larger generators, so that became our source of power for the 3 days we sheltered at the church, allowing us a little light, to make some tea, and to run a microwave.
Everyone came together for those scary, long days at the church. I was all about helping the 300 others, and making sure they were ok. I am a praise and worship singer, so I started to sing and keep everyone singing. The singing helped take their minds off of what was happening. I kept thinking, if everyone was ok, I was ok. One time, the sound of the storm was so loud, you couldn’t hear the singing. The storm sounded like waves crashing right outside the church windows. I kept thinking, if these were waves, we had nowhere else to go.
Three days after the storm, the church was given ‘clearance’ that it was safe to leave. The church told us we could stay till 11pm, but after that they were kicking us out and locking the doors. Lots of people didn’t even know if they had a house to go back to. We ended up staying the night at a cousin’s house so Grammy could sleep in a bed.
Assessing the damage
The next morning, I drove to my family house, but could only make it so far and had to walk the rest of the way on foot, wading in knee high water. Soon the water became too high to walk in, and I began to see downed power lines and didn’t want to be electrocuted. So, I turned back and went to go see the damage to my Grandma’s house. Her house was flooded with 6 ft of water. My Grammy is 74 years old, and she has never been in this situation. The worst thing a hurricane did in the 40 years of living in her house was a little roof damage.
Video of walking in knee deep water to see the family home
My sister and I wanted to drive to our family house, but the water was still too high. With no gas stations open, we needed to conserve our gas and stay close by the house when the water went down. So, my sister and I lived in my car and ate canned SpaghettiOs’s for several days. When the water finally went down, we drove to see the family house damage. The first thing I saw as I approached the front entrance, was my dad’s boat! Our house is about 1.5 minutes on the road from the front entrance of our community. It had floated all the way from our house to the front of the entrance.
Video of Dad's boat in thicket at front entrance of their community
I didn’t recognize my own street. There were downed power lines, and trees and debris covering the main road. At first glance, our house looked pretty good, but when we tried to open the door, we began to see the real damage. The roof had fallen in, and all the windows were blown out from the water pressure—even after we had boarded them up. Someone sent me a photo of my street, and you can see that my house was completely under water, minus just a couple feet of the roofline.
My sister and I immediately went into ‘action mode,’ and tried to make the house look as normal as possible before my parents came (and freaked out!) There was debris and water damage everywhere. Our fridge had been knocked over, and one wall of the house was completely gone.
After the Storm: Picking up the Pieces
It is hard. We don’t have house insurance and there is so much damage. I set up a GoFund me page and raised $2000. Some of my cast and many of my friends gave to my fundraiser, but we are receiving no other support from anyone right now. We have used all of my brother’s, my sister’s, my parent’s and my savings to try and fix the house. I have $35 left in my back account, and I used most of that to buy some water.
My parents had been living at the hotel, where my dad works, up until mid-November. My uncle is a contractor, so with the $2000 from my GoFundMe, we were able to fix the house’s foundation, replace the windows, repair the fallen wall and roof, and get the house rewired—all before my parents moved back to the house. Now, my parents and sister are staying in one room of the house, while they finish working on the other broken pieces of the house.
Wreckage left by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas
(photo credit The Atlantic.)
We are out of the danger zone. The hurricane is done, but now it is dealing with the aftermath--after the storm has passed. There is no refrigerator or stove in the house. We can’t cook our own meals. We got the power back on, but for how long (??), as we don’t have any money to be able to pay the electric bill. My family managed to get another mattress, around the first week of December, which for us is a big deal! It’s something that sounds so simple, but on our limited budget, it means my dad doesn’t have to sleep on the cold concrete floor any more. Our shower was installed, so we can take a decent shower-- however the water is still salty and we don’t have a water heater.
We only have one food store open on the island right now for 100,000 people. People wait in long lines to get into the store, and buy as much as they can. Gas stations are now open, but only till about 5pm-6pm. Not everywhere has full power restored and many places are still on generator power. For safety reasons, everything shuts down on the island about 5-6pm.
Our house is still in need of a refrigerator, a stove, beds, doors, kitchen cabinets, tiles, and other furniture. We have exhausted all of our personal savings and now must rely on the generosity of others to assist us with making our home livable again.
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