Get the latest updates on Hurricane Dorian

While the Bahamas is often associated with all-inclusive resorts, cruise ships and turquoise waters, its islands enduring the worst of Hurricane Dorian are a patchwork of smaller coastal settlements that Caribbean scholars say belies the idyllic tourism industry that much of the commonwealth’s economy thrives on.

The islands are populated, though sparsely , by fishermen and manual laborers, as well as migrants from Haiti, who have firsthand experience with natural disasters, including hurricanes and a devastating earthquake in 2010.

The deadly storm Dorian made landfall on Monday on the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas and then stalled over the more well-known island of Grand Bahama, which includes Freeport, the second-largest city in the commonwealth.

Thousands of homes were believed to have been damaged or destroyed on the Abaco Islands, where at least five deaths had been reported, Prime Minister Hubert A. Minnis said. The United States Coast Guard was conducting rescues, a spokesman said Monday.