Hurricane Dorian: Bahamas death toll likely to be 'staggering' as North Carolina residents hide in their attics

Many in US ignored warnings to evacuate areas in path of storm

Officials in the Bahamas have warned the death toll from Hurricane Dorian could become “staggering”, as the now weakened storm rocked residents of North Carolina, some of whom had to be rescued from their attics.

Five days after Dorian struck the Bahamas with a force last seen in 1935, officials said it was becoming clear the damage there had been “unimaginable”.

While the official death toll still stood at 30, officials warned it was likely to soar, as emergency crews searched more parts of the islands, where reports said the stench of dead bodies hung in the air in some places. Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people remained missing.

Health minister Duane Sands said the final toll was likely to staggering.

“The public needs to prepare for unimaginable information about the death toll and the human suffering,” he told local radio, the BBC reported.

On the island of Great Abaco, Sandra Sweeting, 37, told reporters: “You smell the decomposing bodies as you walk through Marsh Harbour.

“It’s everywhere. There are a lot of people who aren’t going to make it off this island.”

Anthony Thompson, 27, who works in a funeral home, said: “I know what death smells like. There must be hundreds. Hundreds.”

The head of the Bahamas’ only remaining public hospital said the death toll would be “staggering”, and that two large refrigerated trucks would be needed to hold the bodies that were expected to be found.

“We’ve ordered lots of body bags,” said Caroline Burnett-Garraway, medical chief of staff at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau. She said that dealing with all of the dead would take weeks.

Reports said relief groups have been prioritising the need to move doctors, nurses and medical supplies into the hardest-hit areas, and help survivors get food and safe drinking water. The risk of outbreaks of diarrhoea and waterborne diseases because of possible contamination by sewage.

The United Nations estimated 70,000 people were in immediate need of food, water and shelter on the islands.

Bahamian prime minister Hubert Minnis spoke to a crowd gathered at the port in Great Abaco, using the help of a Creole interpreter for a group of Haitians awaiting evacuation after Hurricane Dorian.

He told the Haitians they would be treated with respect and there would be no discrimination.

People wait to evacuated in private boats at Marsh Harbour on Grand Abaco Island (AP)

Mr Minnis urged families with children to keep them in school when they reached Nassau, adding that the government would continue to provide food and healthcare.

Despite the scenes of devastation in the Bahamas, some residents of vulnerable areas in the US ignored orders to evacuate. When the storm made landfall on Friday in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, its winds were still 90 mph, though that was half the force with which Dorian sat over the Bahamas for more than 36 hours.

Sheriff’s officials sent medics and other rescuers to Ocracoke Island, accessible only by boat or air, to reach those who made the mistake of defying mandatory evacuation orders along the 200-mile strip of islands.

“There is significant concern about hundreds of people trapped on Ocracoke Island,” said North Carolina governor Roy Cooper. “There are rescue teams ready as soon as they can get in.”

Residents repeatedly said they never seen such flooding.

“The wall of water just came rushing through the island from the sound side. And it just started looking like a bathtub, very quickly,” said Steve Harris, who has lived on Ocracoke Island for 19 years. “We went from almost no water to 4 to 6ft in a matter of minutes.”

More than 350,000 people were without electricity in the Carolinas and Virginia as Dorian moved up the coast.

At least four people were killed in the southeast. All were men in Florida or North Carolina who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane.

More than a quarter-million residents and visitors had been ordered to evacuate the North Carolina island chain ahead of the storm, officials said.

Additional reporting by agencies