Critical relief supplies, like USAID plastic sheeting, arrive in The Bahamas to help communities affected by Hurricane Dorian.

Alison Harding, USAID/OFDA

Key Developments

USAID recently contributed $7.5 million to Samaritan’s Purse to support health, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in The Bahamas’ Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, which experienced widespread destruction due to Hurricane Dorian. Samaritan’s Purse established a field hospital in Grand Bahama and is delivering critical health services to more than 100 patients daily, as well as providing access to safe drinking water for affected populations on the islands.

To date, USAID has provided more than $25 million to the Hurricane Dorian response, bringing the total U.S. Government (USG) contribution to nearly $34 million. The USG remains the largest humanitarian donor to the response.

One month after Hurricane Dorian, the Government of The Bahamas (GoB) and humanitarian partners continue to address affected populations’ basic needs, while also prioritizing strategies for economic and social recovery. As organizations are completing emergency activities, some relief actors are departing the country and transitioning operations to organizations focused on early recovery and reconstruction.

As debris removal activities progress, the GoB and other relief actors continue efforts to confirm numbers of victims and individuals displaced by the storm. On September 30, the Royal Bahamian Police Force announced the death toll had risen to 58, with 49 deaths recorded in Abaco and nine in Grand Bahama, due to ongoing victim identification and recovery work. Meanwhile, the GoB National Emergency Management Agency announced that nearly 700 of the more than 1,300 people reported missing to a GoB missing persons registry were identified and located by September 25.