Of course thats what the storm is doing now. What it has already done is simply devastating. The bahamas finally assessing the enormous historic damage there. We know that seven paem haeople died. Thats just the initial count. You can expect it to rise. Rescues have been going on nearly around the clock but theyre extremely difficult because the conditions havent improved enough to save the people who might be hiding out on rooftops. Abaco island, devastated. Grand bahama island, devastated. They are only now beginning to get a true sense of the damage there. Throughout the morning were going to speak to our correspondents who have made it to those islands also to people who rode out the storm there to find out what is happening as best we can. In the meantime, let us track the path of Hurricane Dorian to find out how close it might be to landfall in the united states. Lets go to chad myers in the weather center. It looks like the carolinas due to the way the topography is and the way
the storm has already wreaked havoc, caused so much devastation and despair in the bahamas where only now they re getting a sense of how much damage was done. joining me now by phone is niko gibson who runs a medevac company in the bahamas who s had a chance to get involved in some of the rescue and recovery operations. he just got back from exuma island. if you can hear me, tell me what you saw. (. hey, john. how s it going? you know, everybody s definitely, you know, doing our best here trying to do what we can. the problem is the winds and the weather has really been a hazard for traffic to get in and out of abaco. u.s. coast guard, everybody on that end has been doing an amazing job. the defense force and all of the government aides here that we ve been trying to that we ve been working with have been amazing as far as trying to get
stuff. but this morning we ve got about 50 airplanes on the ground now. so everybody s just waiting for that wind to die down. yesterday visibility was a mess for airplanes to get in. literally as soon as we get the all clear from the meteorology department, we re going to start doing what we can on this end. niko gibson, thank you very much for being with us. good luck today. the need is enormous. i know there s frustration because so many of you want to be flying to the islands in need. hopefully the weather clears enough today for you all to do it. thanks for joining us. thanks so much. all right. we re getting new updates on hurricane dorian as it moves up the florida coast. we just heard it s taken a bit of a westerly turn which means that charleston, south carolina will see it. much more after this.