Bahamas: Tropical Storm Humberto threatens area devastated by Hurricane Dorian

Storm Humberto could drop up to six inches of rain in the Bahamas
EPA
Harriet Brewis @HattieBrewis14 September 2019

A new tropical storm is due to hit the Bahamas two weeks after Hurricane Dorian devastated the Caribbean island nation.

Officials temporarily suspended aid efforts and closed airports on Saturday, as Tropical Storm Humberto threatened to lash the island’s vulnerable northwestern region.

Humberto’s arrival is expected to whip up wind gusts of up to 70mph and drop up to six inches of rain in parts of Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands.

"Rains are the biggest issue right now," Bahamian parliament member Iram Lewis warned.

"People are still reeling from the first storm."

The new storm’s arrival coincides with a visit to the Bahamas by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

His presence aims to boost humanitarian aid efforts in the wake of Dorian, which ravaged the islands leaving thousands of people desperately in need of food, water and shelter.

Humberto was located 30 miles east-northeast of Great Abaco island on Saturday morning, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.

Antonio Guterres talks to reporters outside Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium, which is serving as an evacuation centre, in Nassau, Bahamas
REUTERS

It had maximum sustained winds of 40mph and was moving northwest at seven mph.

It is forecast to become a hurricane by Sunday but is expected to stay offshore of Florida's eastern coast as it moves toward open waters.

Portions of the coasts of Florida and Georgia are expected to see one to two inches of rain.

Hurricane Dorian - In pictures

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Government officials in the Bahamas urged people in damaged homes to seek shelter as they announced that aid efforts would be temporarily affected.

"The weather system will slow down logistics," said National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Carl Smith,

The distribution of meals in Grand Bahama was reduced ahead of the storm a spokesman for the UN World Food Program confirmed.

All flights into the UN's logistics hub in Marsh Harbor in Abaco have also been suspended.

Royal Bahamas Police Force carry a body from the debris in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco
REUTERS

Meanwhile, hundreds are still missing in the aftermath of the catastrophic Category 5 hurricane.

The death toll stands at 50 but is expected to rise considerably as search and rescue crews sift through flattened neighbourhoods.

"We are a nation in mourning," Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a statement. "The grief is unbearable following the devastating impact of Hurricane Dorian, which has left behind death, destruction and despair on Grand Bahama and Abaco, our second and third most populous islands."

Around 3,900 evacuees have been processed through south Florida by air and sea so far, according to officials.

The number includes US citizens, legal residents, Bahamians and people from other countries who evacuated the islands after the storm hit.

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