Photo courtesy of NASA

380,000 people lost power in Nova Scotia on Sept. 7 as Hurricane Dorian made its Canadian landfall after coming up the East Coast.

Dorian first struck land on Aug. 28, as it hit the Virgin Islands. It then intensified into a Category 4 hurricane and hit the Bahamas. Dorian lingered in the northern Bahamas for two days as a Category 5 hurricane, the deadliest on the scale. Winds were recorded at speeds up to 185 mph, which tied a record set by a 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.

Bahaman officials have said that 50 people perished in the Bahamas but the Bahamas Press has claimed that that number may climb up to 3,000.

After battering the Bahamas for two days, Dorian moved on to the coasts of North and South Carolina on Sept. 5-6. The only mainland U.S. landfall occurred at Cape Hatteras, N.C., on Sept. 6. After hitting the Carolinas, Dorian then moved up to Canada.

Thousands of people were left homeless as buildings, homes and other structures were destroyed. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said that hundreds were believed to be stuck on Ocracoke Island. The North Carolina National Guard has flown six missions to get people off the island, including a mission that flew a 79-year-old man suffering a medical emergency.

Recovery efforts in the Bahamas have been made difficult because of the damage left behind.

“Anywhere we could put a warehouse has been destroyed by floodwaters and may not be safe for storing supplies. Communications are down, electricity is down,” Christy Delafield of Mercy Corps said.

The American Red Cross has setup a donation website online to help with the Dorian recovery efforts.  

By Jake Geiger | Guest Writer