CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - People and organizations throughout South Florida are continuing to donate and deliver supplies to the Bahamas, where people need food, water and temporary housing in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue crews could be seen forming an assembly line to load donations onto the Global Shadow yacht, Tuesday. Pallets and pallets of supplies and donations could be seen inside the vessel.
“This is gonna be a very, very long recovery,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephan Gollan said. “At this point, they’re still on a stabilization type of arrangement, so we’re trying to support the individuals that are still on the island, help the Bahamian government get those individuals to safe locations and supply them with as much food and water as they need.”
The yacht was one of the first to deliver supplies to the Bahamas. The vessel continues to come back from the islands, stock up and redeliver supplies.
“We’re here to help them,” yacht co-owner Tom McManus said. “We’re gonna continue to help for the months ahead and, most likely, years ahead in this recovery.”
Meanwhile, cargo ships in Dania Beach are filling up with containers full of supplies that corporations and people in the community have donated.
Resolve Marine Group President Joe Farrell said, “Shipping is key to this. Without the shippers, like SEACOR, in particular, that can get to all these islands, and we’re the first ones online over there. It’s critical. It’s saving lives.”
Few items are produced in the Bahamas, so shipping is the lifeline for those hard-hit communities.
SEACOR CEO Michael LaFleur said, “There’s other phases of this, too. The next part is the recovery phase and getting all of that over there. This is not gonna be a short sprint. This is a long marathon in the Bahamas’ road to recovery.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in West Palm Beach, Tuesday. He announced that he will be donating the state’s hurricane water supply to the Bahamas.
Florida Power and Light and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are helping out with the logistics to deliver the water. In total, they filled up 19 trucks with supplies.
“So this is a huge amount of water,” DeSantis said. “It’s gonna be shipped to Nassau, which is where the government is staging most of their relief efforts, and so this will be turned over to, I believe, the Ministry of Defense there.”
At Opa-locka Executive Airport, planes could also be seen being loaded up with supplies that will be taken to the islands. The donations come from many different groups and organizations.
D&S Aviation COO Antonio Caballero said, “It’s going 7,000 pounds of cargo into the island tomorrow first thing in the morning, and we’re arranging a second and third flight in the next week or so.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” D&S Aviation Executive Director Lorena Semaan said. “We just want to be able to help. D&S is transporting all the goods, but this is the work of a team effort.”
At Wings Plus, off Sample Road in Coral Springs, they will continue collecting hurricane relief supplies until Friday. They said they have filled up one 26-foot flatbed truck full of supplies, and they are taking the donations to Banyan Air Service at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.