The Bahamas Hurricane Dorian Relief

Disaster Profile

On September 1 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in The Bahamas with wind speeds in excess of 185mph, lashing The Bahamian islands of Great Abaco (pop. ~17,200) and Grand Bahama (pop. ~51,000). After striking The Bahamas, Dorian’s travelling speed slowed to 1 mph over Grand Bahama, prolonging the island’s exposure to life-threatening storm surges of 18-23 feet above normal tide levels. Dorian is the strongest hurricane on record for The Bahamas and has tied a record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall.

Program Work

With immense support from our local and global partners, we’re committed to performing continuous work in The Bahamas through September 2021. Our focus will be on the restoration of the Every Child Counts School in Marsh Harbour, Abaco as well as continued work on residential homes.

Before our program suspension due to COVID-19, our teams had been working tirelessly to get schools back up and running in Marsh Harbour, performing work on seven schools, including Every Child Counts, St. Francis de Sales and Central Abaco Primary School (the biggest public school on the island). As we return to Marsh Harbour, we continue to focus on the completion of Every Child Counts and we were able to contribute to the completion of Central Abaco Primary School.

Alongside our work in schools, our teams continue to work on a variety of needs for residential homes. We continue to engage in response work including mucking and gutting, debris removal, and mold sanitation. Additionally, we anticipate that roof repair and mold sanitation will continue to be one of the highest needs for residents on Abaco and plan to engage in these scopes of work on as many homes as possible.

A special thank you to our long-term partner, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, and generous supporters for helping us reach our initial funding goal.