A second family has arrived in Guyana to a Ministerial welcome after surviving Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas.
At about 10 pm on Sunday, Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, welcomed Guyanese Vanessa Tate, her Bahamian husband, Stevie Cooper and their three children, Stevie Jr., age 5; Steven, age 3 and 3-month-old Steve at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
Caribbean Airlines flew the family home free of cost following a request for humanitarian assistance in getting 23 Guyanese back on home soil.
Minister Felix, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency, told reporters at the airport that government has sent the message to Guyanese in the hurricane ravaged islands that they are willing and ready to help them on return to Guyana.
“Initially, we had a list of about 102 persons indicating an interest. Then it broke down to about 28. Five came last week, five arrived [Sunday night] and two are to come … next week. We don’t know if others will join that list but so far, we know that two others are expected to return to Guyana on this very flight next Sunday night,” he said.
Felix explained that the way forward for this particular family is not yet decided as there are citizenship issues to be dealt with since the husband is a Bahamian and the children were born to a Guyanese mother outside of Guyana.
“…We would have to walk them through the process to regularization,” he said.
The couple meanwhile has described the ordeal as “horrible” noting that they had to flee their home in the middle of the storm.
“It’s nothing that no one wants to live through,” Tate said, explaining that entire families were swept away by waves.
“Our house, the entire roof came off, so it’s like literally going through a scary movie. God is good,” she added, according to the Ministry of the Presidency.
Last week Orin Grimmond, his wife and three children returned home with a similar tale.
Grimmond, who had not been to Guyana in seven years, expressed relief at being home as he recalled watching the “boiling waters rise” and flooding his home in Marsh Harbour, the capital of Abaco island. He said that they were forced to clamber to the ceiling to escape the floodwaters.
“The experience is terrifying; it is traumatising to begin with. As a husband and father, I looked at my family and there was nothing I could have done to save my family. The water was rising and there was no way to save my family. I cannot say anything else but that it was a miracle we are alive,” he said.
Hurricane Dorian slammed into The Bahamas on Sept. 1 as a Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever to hit land, packing top sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (298 km per hour).