Relief efforts were underway in the Bahamas on Saturday after swaths of the nation were decimated by Hurricane Dorian.
In places like the Abaco Islands there appears to be hardly anything left but debris, prompting evacuations. On two of the commonwealth's largest islands "everything has been devastated," Ellison Thompson, deputy director general of tourism and aviation, said on MSNBC Saturday afternoon.
"We’re having to go door-to-door in order to determine who’s there and who’s not there," he said. "We’re very sad about the loss of life."
In Marsh Harbour, crews from the Miami Fire-Rescue Department expected to find bodies, not survivors, according to NBC News reporting on the ground.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is using its Air and Marine Operations to deliver food and water to Fox Town on Little Abaco Island, the agency tweeted Saturday
"The situation is pretty dire here," college student Kristoff Strachan on Grand Bahama told MSNBC by phone Saturday. "It's just a lot of people trying to get out."
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U.S. Coast Guard helicopters Saturday were evacuating the critically injured.
And, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line ship Grand Celebration transported more than 1,100 Bahamians to the United States, the line said in a statement.
Evacuees were taken to Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Florida, early Saturday, according to the cruise line. The ship was in the Bahamas on Thursday and Friday with nearly 300 first responders, 850 boxed lunches and a total of 225,000 pounds of supplies, including food and water, the line stated.
Tropic Ocean Airways said it has rescued 80 people and delivered 12 tons of cargo and supplies via 60 flights since Dorian struck the island Sunday. Authorities say at least 43 are dead, but that number was expected to grow as more than 6,600 people were missing.
A reporter for NBC News affiliate WPTV of South Florida posted video on Twitter of a flattened Grand Bahama International Airport Friday.
Administrator Mark Green of the U.S. Agency for International Development planned to tour USAID's warehouse in Miami Saturday. The agency is sending supplies to the Bahamas.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of Hurricane Dorian
President Trump on Saturday morning praised his stalled nominee for the Bahamian ambassadorship, San Diego billionaire Doug Manchester.
"I would also like to thank "Papa" Doug Manchester, hopefully the next Ambassador to the Bahamas, for the incredible amount of time, money and passion he has spent on helping to bring safety to the Bahamas," the president said on Twitter.
