🎁 A gift: Bahamas Hurricane Dorian death toll will be 'staggering' with THOUSANDS still missing
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The death toll from devastating Hurricane Dorian will be 'staggering' with thousands still missing, officials have warned amid reports looters are 'trying to shoot people' in the scramble for food and water.
Up to 70,000 are in need of 'life-saving assistance' while Great Abaco is said to be virtually uninhabitable, with bodies piled up and witnesses say there is a 'smell of death' with corpses floating in the water.
While the official death toll stands at 30, that number is expected to rise and hundreds of body bags have been ordered along with extra freezers.
A massive international relief effort was ramped up today as survivors revealed horrifying details of the 'apocalyptic' aftermath of the 185mph, Category-5 storm which hit the islands five days ago.
One survivor, Alicia Cooke, broke down in tears as she revealed: 'Everything is gone, people are starting to panic. Pillaging, looting, trying to shoot people for food and water. It's just no way everyone's going to get out.'
'No homes. No banks. No gas stations. No hardware stores. Everything is gone,' she added, as others said they feared the spread of disease.
Hundreds have gathered hoping to be evacuated today, but efforts have been complicated by flooded runways at Grand Bahama International Airport.
The British Government has pledged £1.5 million to help deliver aid, saying it is estimated that several hundred British nationals live in the worst affected areas of the Bahamas.
The Foreign Office said it is working to establish how badly they have been affected and deploying staff and members of the British Red Cross for 'emotional and practical support'.
A Royal Navy helicopter rescued three children, and a British person who was trapped beneath rubble for several days after the hurricane.
The Wildcat helicopter, operating from Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Mounts Bay - which has been stationed in the Caribbean since June in readiness for hurricane season, was flying over Great Abaco Island to assess the damage when its crew were called to rescue a casualty from Elbow Cay.
The crew pulled the person from the rubble and took them back to Mounts Bay to be given emergency medication before being airlifted to the capital Nassau.
The Royal Navy said that the Wildcat also rescued a woman, her two children and a baby, and took them to Nassau.
Addressing fears the death toll from the disaster will climb, Health Minister Duane Sands warned: 'Let me say that I believe the number will be staggering.'
Some locals called the government's initial official death toll a tragic underestimate.
Hundreds of desperate survivors gathered at the port in Great Abaco on Friday, hoping to get off the hurricane-devastated island, amid signs of rising frustration over the pace of the disaster-relief effort.
'It's chaos here,' said Gee Rolle, a 44-year-old construction worker who waited with his wife for a boat that could take them to the capital, Nassau.
'The government is trying their best, but at the same time, I don't think they're doing a good enough job to evacuate the people. It ain't liveable for nobody. Only animals can live here.'
There were no government-organised evacuations yet, but the Royal Bahamas Defence Force helped people board a 139ft ferry that had come to pick up its employees and had room for an additional 160 people.
The crowd waited calmly as marines separated women and children to let them board first.
Also, a barge that had dropped off portable toilets and heavy equipment in Abaco took some 300 people to Nassau.
Prime minister Hubert Minnis spoke to the crowd at the port, using a Creole interpreter for a group of Haitians awaiting evacuation, and assured them: "All of you will be treated with respect."
The Bahamian health ministry said helicopters and boats were on the way, but officials warned of delays because of severe flooding.
'You smell the decomposing bodies as you walk through Marsh Harbour,' said Sandra Sweeting, 37, in an interview amid the wreckage on Great Abaco. 'It's everywhere. There are a lot of people who aren't going to make it off this island.'
'I work part-time in a funeral home, I know what death smells like,' said Anthony Thompson, 27. 'There must be hundreds. Hundreds.'
Extra security has been deployed with witnesses seeing residents breaking into liquor
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