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Hurricane Dorian and The Aftermath
9/12/2019 (Permalink)
Hurricane Dorian as it approaches the East Coast. What a truly massive and devastating force!
Hurricane Dorian wasn’t your average hurricane. It’s size and speed made it a very unique storm, and not in the way you might think. Dorian was a particularly slow moving hurricane, meaning that it seemingly hovered in place at times, making it hard to predict its path. Ultimately, Dorian would spare the US Eastern Coast in large part, but not before doing billions in damage to the Caribbean. The Bahamas were hit the hardest, having whole islands leveled by the storm and a death toll expected to rise above 50 people. News outlets like CNN estimates that over 70,000 residents have been left homeless by the storm.
When we think about hurricanes causing damage we typically think of wind and debris swirling around smashing into homes and buildings. Hurricanes like Dorian bring heavy rains and severe storm surge which can be just as devastating as its class 5, 180 mph winds. The high winds and slow moving nature of this storm Dorian absolutely devastated the Caribbean Islands. The Government of The Bahama’s Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) estimates that over 5,000 people were displaced by the storm. The USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) dispatched over 100 disaster response experts and search and rescue personnel to assist the Bahamian government rescue and recovery efforts. Much aid is needed in the Grand Bahamian islands.
While Dorian did not make landfall in the US as a class 5 hurricane, it did spend the better part of an entire week pounding the East Coast with high winds, heavy rains, and major flooding due to storm surge. It did finally make landfall in Cape Hatteras, NC as a category 1 hurricane with winds reaching 90 mph. Tens of thousands of homes lost power from Georgia to Virginia and many roads were left impassable, like in Charleston where they faced several feet of water in city streets. Damage totals have not been compiled as of yet but estimates tally into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
SERVPRO of Bartow County is one of nearly 1,700 locally owned SERVPRO franchises nationwide. Our network of Disaster Recovery Teams is unrivaled in our industry and afford each and every SERVPRO franchise the assets necessary to take on any size disaster. SERVPRO is hard at work assisting our brothers and sisters all along the East Coast in storm recovery efforts. Our hearts and minds are with those affected by Dorian, especially our Bahamian neighbors to the south.