Officials expect the number of dead will continue to rise as large parts of some islands remain inaccessible to rescue crews

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The official death toll from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has hit 20 and is likely to rise further, the country’s prime minister has said, as he warned of “generational devastation” in the archipelago’s northern region.

Aerial video of the Abaco Islands – a northern band of islands hardest hit by Dorian – showed widespread devastation, with the harbour, shops, workplaces, a hospital and airport landing strips damaged or blown to pieces, all of which was frustrating rescue efforts.

Dorian pummelled the area as a slow moving category 5 hurricane over the weekend.

“So many families have been deeply impacted” by Dorian, which “has left generational devastation across Abaco and Grand Bahama”, the prime minister, Hubert Minnis, said at a press conference late on Wednesday. “We ask you to pray for the families and loved ones of the deceased,” added the PM, who had just returned from a flyover of the Abacos.

Play Video 1:25 'Everything is gone': Hurricane Dorian survivor tells of terrifying ordeal in Bahamas – video

Minnis also said he was aware of reports of looting on the Abacos.

Large areas remain inaccessible to rescue crews, who continue to prioritise emergency evacuations, meaning the full scale of devastation caused by the hurricane is still not completely clear.

Mark Lowcock, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told the Guardian that the agency estimates about 70,000 people in the northern Bahamas remain in need of relief assistance.

Bahamas flooding interactive Marsh Harbour in Great Abaco, photographed before and after Hurricane Dorian struck. Photographs: Planet Labs

At the main rescue centre in Nassau, the Bahamas capital city, US Coast Guard and Royal Marines helicopters arrived sporadically throughout the day bringing in dozens of rescued people from the Abacos Islands.

Rescue workers said that the challenge remained gargantuan due to the level of destruction and how remote the northern islands were. With no functioning water systems in accessible areas, workers had not been able to establish a permanent rescue site on the Abacos.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kathryn Russell, left, cries as she is is hugged by her daughter Chrishanti Darishon, in Nassau, Bahamas, after arriving from Abaco, where she rode out Hurricane Dorian with her grandson, Chrishon. Photograph: Angel Valentin/The Guardian

The US Coast Guard had rescued 114 people by Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman told the Guardian that six helicopter rescue crews had rescued about 60 critically injured people by Tuesday evening.

Lt Keith Webb, a Royal Marines helicopter co-pilot, said that his crew had rescued a seven-week-old baby girl who suffered from acute sepsis in the aftermath of Dorian. The crew had also rescued two children, aged six and seven, suffering from hypothermia.

Other recently evacuated Bahamians said they had endured days without food and, in one case, had witnessed a neighbour die in front of them from cardiac arrest.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flooding on Grand Bahama Island after Hurricane Dorian. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

Minnis said he had spoken to Donald Trump earlier in the day. The US president has suggested he may visit the Bahamas in the wake of Dorian.

“I guess you would call it a British protectorate, but I will do a lot,” Trump told reporters earlier on Wednesday. “We’re waiting for a call – they’re having a lot of trouble with the telephones over there as you can imagine – from the prime minister and we’re helping a lot.”

What to expect next from Hurricane Dorian Read more

The British government has dispatched a team of disaster relief specialists from the Department for International Development (Dfid) that is coordinating aid operations based primarily from a Royal Navy landing vessel RFA Mounts Bay, anchored close to the Abacos Islands.

Dorian’s ferocity has weakened since it struck the Bahamas, but it remains powerful as it creeps up the south-eastern US coast toward North and South Carolina. On Wednesday evening it was a category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115mph, regaining strength after previously being downgraded to a category 2.

Forecasters warned of near-record water levels and millions of people are under evacuation orders. Businesses are boarded up around the city and some people have been in shelters for days. South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, warned residents in evacuation zones to “get out now”. There was still time for people to leave at-risk areas, he said, but they should do so immediately.

Adam Gabbatt contributed reporting