Great Abaco, Bahamas (CNN) Ravaged infrastructure slowed down search and recovery efforts in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian left behind a mess of splintered buildings, torn-off roofs, snapped power poles and scattered vehicles.

Volunteers with search dogs are scouring neighborhoods flattened by the hurricane . Global relief agencies rushed to get food and shelter to about 70,000 people left homeless on two northern islands

The death toll is now at 45, the Royal Bahamas Commissioner of Police said in a statement Sunday. Thirty-seven bodies have been recovered from the island of Abaco and eight from Grand Bahama.

That number is expected to rise drastically, officials said. Hundreds remain missing, likely buried under rubble on Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands by the strongest hurricane ever to hit the archipelago nation.

"It was like an atomic bomb went off," said Sherrie Roberts, who was on the Abaco Islands when Dorian struck a week ago as a Category 5 monster, then lingered for days over the same wrecked places.

Read More