A tropical storm warning was issued on Friday for the northern Bahamas
as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of the dangers of
climate change during a visit to the hurricane-battered archipelago.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said a depression had formed
near the Bahamas and was forecast to become a tropical storm on
Saturday.
Bahamian meteorologists said the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco,
which were the worst-hit by Hurricane Dorian, were in the path of the
approaching weather system.
Winds of up to 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour were expected and
heavy rainfall could bring some flooding to the already saturated
islands, said Trevor Basden, director of the Department of Meteorology.
Carl Smith, a spokesman for the Bahamian National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA), said the storm could have an impact on relief and
recovery efforts on Grand Bahama and Abaco.
"The weather system will slow down logistics," Smith told a press
conference in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. "Fuel and water remain
the biggest needs in Abaco."
UN chief Guterres said in a tweet that he had come to the Bahamas "to
express my solidarity with the Bahamian people" and "ways we can
continue supporting them."
In prepared remarks, Guterres said 75 percent of all buildings had been destroyed in some areas by Dorian, a Category 5 storm.
"Hospitals are either in ruins, or overwhelmed," he said. "Schools have
been turned into rubble. Thousands of people will continue to need help
with food, water and shelter."
Guterres said the hurricane demonstrated the need to address climate change.
"In our new era of climate crisis, hurricanes and storms are
turbo-charged," he said. "They happen with greater intensity and
frequency -– a direct result of warmer oceans.
"Science is telling us: this is just the start. Without urgent action,
climate disruption is only going to get worse. Every week brings news of
climate-related devastation."
NEMA raised the death toll, meanwhile, from Hurricane Dorian to 52 from
50 although officials have said they expect it to rise significantly
once all the bodies are recovered.
A former prime minister, Hubert Ingraham, said this week he feared the final death toll could be in the hundreds.
Smith, the NEMA spokesman, said some 1,300 people remain unaccounted for
following Hurricane Dorian -- the same number he gave on Thursday.
He said 71 people were staying in shelters on Grand Bahama island and
2,037 in shelters in New Providence, where Nassau is located.
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