Hurricane Dorian

Immediate Health Needs

With so many survivors in need of basic health services, Americares medical professionals went first to where the displaced people gathered. Less than a week after the storm, a medical team helped provide health screenings for evacuees from the hardest hit islands as they arrived at the airport in Nassau to seek shelter in government facilities or with friends and family. On September 11, 2019, Americares emergency medical team began providing health and mental health and psychosocial consultations in Nassau at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium, the country’s largest emergency shelter.

Working alongside Ministry of Health staff, Americares helped survivors with daily blood glucose monitoring and insulin, welfare check-ins, prescription refills, health education and support for daily living. Americares also provided a refrigerator and shelving for proper storage of medicine in the shelter, which was in a gymnasium.

Mental Health Care & Training

When a survivor has lost everything in a disaster, recovery begins with the basics, and that includes special attention to mental health. At the shelter in Nassau, Americares partnered with the United Nations Population Fund to rebuild community networks and support systems by training and supporting community health volunteers. The volunteers distributed dignity kits to female shelter residents and shared information on sexual health and well-being to male and female shelter residents.  In partnership with UNFPA and IsraAid, Americares also installed a community space at the shelter so survivors had a place for art and games, and mental health specialists had a space for group therapy activities, one-on-one meetings and community events.

In November, Americares trained mental health professionals who work for the Ministry of Health and the Bahamas Psychological Association on mental health and psychosocial services in emergencies; some also received education on resiliency, coping and self-care and instruction on how to share their knowledge with other mental health professionals.

Hope Town Rises

After the Hope Town clinic on Abaco was destroyed during the hurricane, Ministry of Health staff established a temporary clinic in a nearby damaged home. Americares rehabilitated this space and, in mid-2020, plans to provide the ministry with a solar-powered temporary health facility where survivors can get the care they need.

In Hope Town, one of the most affected communities in the Abaco islands, Americares trained community health volunteers to talk with survivors about their trauma and loss and encourage them to seek health services.

By June 2020, Americares will train additional community health volunteers to be a critical link between clinical providers and the community, increasing access to care for many more of  the most vulnerable survivors. Volunteers will facilitate health education sessions and refer survivors to health or social services, if needed.

The Final Dorian Coastal Track

This historic and unpredictable hurricane, diminished to a Category 2 storm (110 mph winds), turned slowly to move up the U.S. southeast coast, threatening Florida, the Carolinas and Georgia. As the storm moved it expanded in size and strengthened again, meaning that even before another landfall, strong winds and heavy rains hammered the Carolinas creating power outages and causing significant flooding. Hurricane force winds extended 60 miles from the storm center, with tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 195 miles.  Dorian  finally made landfall again at Cape Hatteras NC on the morning of  September 6 as a Category 1 with 90 mph winds.  Leaving wreckage and floodwaters in its wake, Dorian, regaining strength as a Category 2, headed up the coast toward the Canadian Maritimes where it made landfall on September 7.  Photo by Alex Ostasiewicz.