Her dad tried to escape his Bahamas home as Dorian hit. Then the roof caved in

The morning before Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas on Sunday, 67-year-old Walter Saintilaire told his daughter in Fort Lauderdale he was bracing for the storm and helping his neighbors do the same.

“To be honest,” his daughter, 32-year-old Walnide Saintilaire, said, “I didn’t know it was going to be this bad.”

Saintilaire said she found out Monday that her father had died trying to escape his home of nearly 30 years, crushed beneath its collapsed roof.

Friends of the family in Murphy Town, Central Abaco, told Saintilaire that they saw her father die as the storm’s 185 mph winds and unrelenting flooding overtook the area. Now she’s trying to obtain a photo of her father’s body to confirm the news to her family.

She said she also has no news of her brother, who was supposed to be staying with their father.

“From what I’ve heard, everything is broken and flooded,” she said. “He was trying to leave and the house collapsed.”

At least five people died in the Abaco Islands, and 21 others were injured — five seriously — around the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian’s crawl across the length of the archipelago.

But local news reports indicate the death toll may rise.

Bahamas Press published a photo Monday appearing to show rescue workers loading bodies onto a truck in the Abaco Islands. The news site reported that “mass casualties” were documented on the island chain as sources indicated rescuers were collecting bodies across the region.

Broward County state Rep. Shevrin Jones, who said his relatives work for the Bahamian government, posted a message from family on Twitter on Monday describing devastating tragedy.

“[M]y team & I just found a whole family curl up in each other’s arms dead!” the message from Jones’ cousin, Crissy Gibson, said. “[P]hotos not reasonable for viewing, emotionally some of my team is falling apart. I have to keep them focused! [M]other, father, son, and more to be [found].”

Thousands of homes are believed to be damaged or completely leveled on the Abaco Islands, east of Grand Bahama Island.

Families of Bahamas residents took to social media this week trying to confirm the safety of their loved ones. In one group chat on WhatsApp dedicated to Abaco Islands news, scores of people begged strangers for information on their loved ones. They posted photos, names and even coordinates. They said they could not get in contact with their families, and assumed the worst.

For Saintilaire, the worst had come. She posted a photo of her father and asked the social network to find her a photo of her father’s body. She said she has tried to contact neighbors and local authorities, but phone calls are not getting through.

“All I can do is try to contact as much people as possible,” she said.

This story was originally published September 3, 2019 at 1:17 PM.