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Hurricane Dorian’s death toll in Bahamas rises to 43: media
MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas, Sept 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from
Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has risen to 43, media outlets said late
Friday, and was expected to grow “significantly.”
US network CNN and Bahamas newspaper The Tribune cited Health Minister
Duane Sands as confirming the new toll, up from 30.
“Forty-three is the official count, many missing and this number is
expected to grow significantly,” Erica Wells Cox, a spokeswoman for Prime
Minister Hubert Minnis, told NBC News. Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane —
the highest on the five-level wind scale — when it slammed into the northern
Bahamas on Sunday, leaving a trail of immense destruction.
According to UN relief officials, more than 70,000 people — virtually the
entire population of the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco — are in need of
assistance after the storm reduced homes to matchsticks and destroyed
people’s livelihoods.
Hundreds — perhaps thousands — are missing and Bahamian officials have
said the final toll could be “staggering.”
BSS/AFP/SSS/0937 hrs