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Sarah St George, chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, told the Guardian that the “force and size” of Dorian took everyone by surprise, a situation made worse by the hurricane stalling over the archipelago.

“Grand Bahama is not in good shape at all because 70% of it was under water,” St George said. “On the north side of the island the water was coming up to the second floor of their houses. My assistant Tammy was on the roof of her house for 30 hours hanging on to a coconut tree with her 8-year-old daughter Ariana. Her grandmother lost her grip and slipped off the roof and drowned. There was no way of getting to them. They’ve lost everything.”

St George said the storm surge came from the north side, where the airport and the humane society animal shelter are, causing a lot of animals to drown.

“The jet ski operators are the real heroes,” St George said. “They didn’t give up all day long, just going back and forth. Our port authority team got on jet skis and rescued more than 100 people from the flooded areas. The jet skis came into their own because you couldn’t get a boat there and you couldn’t drive. So they turned out to be incredibly useful rescue vehicle because they can go over quite shallow water. But eventually fuel becomes a problem.”

“It’s tough getting back to Grand Bahama because the airspace is still closed and there’s a lot of ‘hurricane tourism’ – people flying over the island to take a look,” she said.