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News ID: 70388
Publish Date : 13 September 2019 - 22:05

New Storm Hits Bahamas as 1,300 People Missing

NASSAU (Reuters) -- A new storm
brought rain and wind to the hurricane ravaged Bahamas early Friday,
with the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) warning it could
turn into a tropical storm.
Early Friday, it was a tropical disturbance over the central Bahamas, packing winds of 30 mph (45 kph) and was
expected to drop two to four inches of
rain through Sunday, the NHC said.
There is an 80 percent chance that it
will turn into a stronger tropical depression or even a tropical storm named
Humberto in the next day or so as it
crawls at 6 mph (9 kph) across the Bahamas and takes aim at Florida, the NHC
said.
A tropical storm warning was in effect
for Northwestern Bahamas, including
the hurricane-hit Abacos and Grand Bahama, the NHC said.
The storm is expected to pick up speed
as it moves northwest on Friday and
could hit Florida on Saturday, it said.
A tropical storm watch was issued
for portions of the coast of east-central
Florida late Thursday and South Florida
could see tropical storm force winds as
early as Friday evening, the NHC said.
Hurricane Dorian slammed into the
Bahamas on Sept. 1 as a Category 5
storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record to hit land, packing
top sustained winds of 185 miles per
hour (298 kph).
The tropical cyclone was not expected
to bring anywhere near that level of devastation.
With 1,300 people still missing, according to the Bahamian government,
relief services are focused on search and
rescue as well as providing food, water
and shelter.
Aid groups rushed shelter material to
residents living in the shells of former
homes.
"We’re seeing plastic tarps go out all
over the islands, and that’s extremely
important because now you’ve got another tropical storm coming,” said Ken
Isaacs, vice president of programs for
U.S. relief organization Samaritan’s
Purse.
The prime minister of the Bahamas,
Hubert Minnis, on Wednesday said the
official death toll stood at 50 but that it
was expected to rise.
Minnis said there were problems coordinating aid due to the level of devastation and he was trying to remove
"bureaucratic roadblocks.”
Former prime minister Hubert Ingraham said he believed "hundreds”
were dead on Abaco "and significant
numbers on Grand Bahama,” the Nassau Guardian newspaper reported on
Thursday.