Freeport, Bahamas (CNN) As Hurricane Dorian ravaged Freeport, the main city on Grand Bahama, fisherman Howard Armstrong had to watch helplessly as his wife died in the rising flood that claimed their home.

The water rose quickly, he told CNN, and soon it was up to their necks.

Howard Armstrong

"We were doing all right until the water kept coming up, and all the appliances were going around the house, like the washer machine," said Armstrong, who is a crab fisherman.

His wife, Lynn, was standing on the kitchen cabinets, the only place where "your head would touch the roof," he said. Only their heads were above the water.

After hours of waiting in the flooded house for rescue, Armstrong's wife succumbed to hypothermia and slipped under the water.

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