A mother told last night how she thought she was going to drown as she slipped beneath the surging waters brought by Hurricane Dorian. Lanell Laing, 31, had fled her home in High Rock, Grand Bahama, to try and take shelter but the house she fled to filled with water and she and her 10-year-old son, Aaron Turner, spent the night clinging to a roof. Her story emerged as the Telegraph last night became one of the few newspapers to make it into the east of Grand Bahama, one of the worst hit islands in the region. The roads, some of which were torn to shreds by gusts of up to 220mph, have been passable for less than 24 hours as the first supplies started to be brought through by friends, neighbours and those who had fled. The community of around 600 were counting their missing. Around 14 people were known to have been in their homes when the hurricane hit. Rubble where houses once stood in High Rock, Grand Bahama Credit: Hayley Dixon for the Telegraph Only one man’s body has been found so far. He appeared to have been torn from his home, which lay in a pile of rubble that was discovered metres down the road. From just one of the destroyed homes there are seven people missing. Ms Laing said that as the water started to pour in she grabbed Aaron and her friend’s baby and put them in a cupboard. But she soon realised the flood was rising too fast. “I grabbed my son and I pushed him up to the ceiling and just told him to hold on,” she told the Telegraph. “But as soon as I did I started to go under. I thought this is it, I am going to drown.” Suddenly she too was grabbed from the water by her neighbour and managed to grab hold of the top of a door. Road asphalt on the Grand Bahama Highway torn up by 220 mph winds Credit: Hayley Dixon for the Telegraph They spent the whole night with their heads pressed against the ceiling gasping for air as the storm waters swirled around them. Now they are relying on the kindness of friends whilst they wait for the government to bring them food and water. They have no power as the pylons lie broken across the roads. A plane thrown by the storm on the side of the road near Freetown airport Credit: Hayley Dixon for the Telegraph Ms Laing’s partner Trevor Turner said: “People watch movies about the apocalypse, those end of the world natural disasters. Well, this felt like that.” The communities further east from High Rock are as yet unreachable. People have walked out there, but no one has yet returned to report on the damage. And as rescuers work across the devastated region, families here fear that the death toll from this disaster will be much higher than the official tally so far of just 30.
