The message was desperate, despondent and urgent.

"Anybody who can help me, this is Kendra Williams. I live in Heritage. We are under water; we are up in the ceiling.

"Can someone please assist us or send some help. Please."

"Me and my six grandchildren and my son, we are in the ceiling."

The text message was forwarded to AFP by Yasmin Rigby, a resident of Freeport. Authorities in the hurricane-hammered Bahamas said they were getting many such dire-sounding pleas for help.

"We're getting a lot of frantic people calling in," Don Cornish, the Grand Bahama disaster manager, told NPR.

"They're very concerned because of the storm surge... We have had persons who are trying to get out in these conditions because they're desperate because of the level the water has come in their homes."

-'Haven't heard anything' -

Dorian, which arrived as a mammoth Category 5 hurricane and settled in over the islands before being downgraded Monday to a still-dangerous Category 4, brought with it devastating winds and torrential downpours.

Potentially most destructive for some of the low-lying islands have been storm surges of 10 to 20 feet (three to six meters) -- or more. As of Monday, they had left wide areas under water.

Rigby said Freeport's airport and hospital were both under water. Both power and water had gone out.

"Some other family members evacuated from a once-safe house to us," she told AFP. "I'm praying the water does not come this way."

A message circulated by the command center in New Providence, Bahamas, urgently requested jet skis, small boats and life jackets.

Pleas for help went out on Twitter, though the details could not be confirmed.

One man said some family members were on their roof in Freeport. "Haven't heard anything from/about my fam in Abaco since Saturday," he added.

Water was nearly roof-level in many places. Surging waves tossed roof shingles, loose wood and mangled debris violently about, slapping against -- or rushing through -- homes.

- An infant, and no roof -

One video on Twitter showed waves crashing high against the window of a home in Grand Bahama. Another showed a family's jumbled belongings being washed back and forth through their living room.

The Nassau Guardian newspaper told the harrowing story of 35-year-old Gertha Joseph of Marsh Harbor, Abaco, who stood at the top of a staircase in her home Sunday, holding her four-month-old son, as waves tore through the house -- when her roof blew off.

As she stood paralyzed with fear, a neighbor came to help.

"He put (my son in) this plastic thing and he swam across with him because I can't swim," she said.

She told a reporter she and more than 50 people had crowded into the only house standing on her street.

She didn't know where she would go once the storm waters recede.

"I'm just going to keep praying," she said.

Some storm-savvy Floridians shrug, others flee or bunker down
Port Saint Lucie, United States (AFP) Sept 2, 2019 - Michael James was boarding over the last two windows of his house on Florida's east coast. The first gusty blasts of wind were announcing Hurricane Dorian's imminent arrival, and most residents had fled. But James, an old hand at this, knew he had a few hours to go before leaving.

"Guess what?" he said. "A real hurricane is a lot different than what people see on TV -- it's much worse."

James, who is 63, has not forgotten the two times he was caught in hurricanes while working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1980s.

On television, he told an AFP reporter, "you never get the concept. You never get the speed or anything."

Monster storm Dorian was downgraded Monday to a still-powerful Category 4 as it lumbers slowly across the Bahamas toward the Florida coast.

Residents there -- those who haven't already evacuated -- have been keeping a nervous eye on the news, hoping the storm will make the promised northward turn before rumbling into the mainland.

Residents of Port Saint Lucie, a medium-sized city midway up the state's Atlantic coast, is expected to have its closest encounter with the massive storm late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

People here know what they must do. Many area businesses are already closed and boarded up, and shelters have begun to fill up as the skies take on a more ominous cast.

Mobile home neighborhoods along the Indian River are now nearly deserted, the fragile vinyl and aluminum structures protected in cursory fashion.

But many long-time Floridians are keeping their humor, saying they know from experience what to expect.

- 'Enjoy the experience' -

Any tips for a hurricane first-timer?

Stacey Ewers, who has spent 35 of her 56 years in Florida, breaks into a smile.

"Just enjoy the experience," she says, taking a break from boarding up her windows with leftover wood -- her supply of plywood long since exhausted.

She admitted being just "a bit nervous," but added: "The hard part is cleaning up, it's not the storm. The hard part is after the storm."

Barrier islands -- low-lying, elongated islets of sand -- protect much of the state's Atlantic coast.

Residents of those islands are under mandatory evacuation orders, and police are preparing to close the bridges that provide access to and from the mainland.

A few people have waited until the last minute before leaving, hoping for a final dramatic view of the ragged and rising sea before communications are cut off.

The waves coming in are wild and thunderous, powerful reminders of the force of the looming hurricane that spent much of Sunday and Monday parked over the Bahamas with devastating effect.

Mist blotted out the horizon, rain whipped through the area intermittently, and wind-blown sand swirled, danced and pelted the rare onlookers.

At least one of them loved the scene.

"It's beautiful," said Jed Guty, a Colombian national who refused to give his age except to say he is "very old."

"I don't know if it's coming or not coming, but I'm enjoying it," he said. "I've been through many (storms) but I have never come to the beach."

"The sand, the wind... it's gorgeous."

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Amazon fires create image nightmare for Brazil
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Aug 28, 2019
Scorched forests, government inaction and presidential insults - fires in the Amazon rainforest are having a disastrous effect on Brazil's international image, analysts warn. "This is the worst crisis Brazil has had for its image in 50 years," former government minister Rubens Ricupero told O Globo newspaper. The daily Folha de S.Paulo lamented "the worst disaster in the history of Brazilian diplomacy in decades." "We find ourselves alone and ashamed," it said. While a stronghold of ... read more