NASSAU, the Bahamas — Destitute survivors of Hurricane Dorian who lost much of what they had to the powerful storm packed a government office in the Bahamas on Monday, desperate for a document that could be their ticket off the overwhelmed islands: a clean criminal record.

Hoping to reach Florida, they took every available seat inside the stuffy Criminal Records Office in Nassau, the capital, to request a piece of paper that, along with their passports, could free them to travel to the United States.

“Nobody knows where to turn, nobody knows what to do,” said Madlin Louis, 19, who would like to stay with relatives in Miami and maybe find work. “Try to start a new life, and then go back to Abaco, because that’s our home.”

Some 200 miles away, people from the Bahamas were landing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., trying to figure out their next move. A cruise ship on a relief mission docked near West Palm Beach on Sunday with some 1,400 people from the Bahamian city of Freeport on board.