As Hurricane Dorian started to gradually accelerate to the northwest and become a Category 2 storm on Tuesday, Sept. 3, damage reports from the Bahamas were still spotty, and consultants and contractors waited for an expected onslaught of requests for help. At least seven people are known to have died, and media reports say towns have been leveled. The U.S. Coast Guard said it had rescued 19 people from the islands.
Peter McLeod, senior partner at Bahamas-based consultant DHP Associates, says his firm expects to be called in for estimates and assessments soon, but that as of late Tuesday, communications with the islands in the path of the storm, a little more than 100 miles north of Nassau, still were cut off.