THE family of a 28-year-old medical student based in storm ravaged Dominica yesterday said their concern is “growing by the minute” as they await updates after the passage of mega storm Maria.

“We talked on Monday,” the student’s mother Vandora Johnson said in an emotional interview with The Tribune.

“He said the school was preparing to shut down because the storm was getting close. It is now Wednesday and I need to know if he is safe.”

The heartbroken mother said she had “exhausted all options” when it came to trying to communicate with her son, Christian Johnson, who is enrolled as a medical student at Ross University in Dominica.

“He doesn’t live on the school’s campus. He lives across the street. When we last spoke, he sounded relaxed and fine. But that was when Maria was just a tropical storm. It didn’t jump until later on that night,” she added.

Maria, a category five storm at the time, ripped through Dominica on Monday completely destroying communicates, infrastructure and critical facilities.

On Monday night, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in a Facebook post indicated that even he had to be rescued from his official residence after the powerful storm ripped the roof off his home.

On Tuesday morning, he wrote: “We will need help, my friend, we will need help of all kinds.”

He described damage to the island as “mind-boggling.”

Yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there are three Bahamians living and working in Dominica: two students and a businesswoman.

“In the aftermath of the passage of Hurricane Maria over that island, and in the absence of a formal Bahamas mission in Dominica, the ministry has reached out to the sources in the community to determine the Bahamians’ precise situation. The ministry stands ready to provide consular or other assistance if necessary,” a short statement from the ministry noted.

Meanwhile, the family of Mr Johnson said he’s been in Dominica since August 23 taking classes at Ross University.

A search of the university’s website revealed that notices were posted earlier this week, informing students that the storm was close and posed immediate threat to life and property.

An alert on the website read: “We have set a plan in place to begin a series of boat evacuations of the Ross Med community, to take them to safety on the island of St Lucia.”

It continued: “We are working with a charter boat company to utilise a number of vessels to get our people to a location of greater safety and comfort. As you can imagine, the harbours on Dominica suffered damage in the hurricane and there is much debris in the water. The first step today is for a ‘scout boat’ from the charter company to find the best location to access our people.

“Meanwhile, the boats are being staffed with crew and stocked with medical supplies and other supplies where they are docked on nearby islands and those boats will begin their journey to Dominica today.

“Our crisis team continues to be in communication with the US State Department about the possibility of a larger-scale military evacuation, but as of now, moving forward with our evacuation plan is our best choice.

“We plan to begin the transport of people with taking care of the children and elderly first. Each family will be permitted to have one parent travel with their children. We will also certainly transport anyone with any serious injuries in this first group, although we are grateful to report at this time that we have few reports of injuries, and those are said to be somewhat minor.

“We have a team dedicated to determining next steps once we get all of our people to St Lucia and we will provide more details soon regarding how long they will be there and what plans are for the continuation of classes.”

Up to press time Wednesday, The Tribune was working to establish a line of communication between the Johnson family and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the hopes of a resolution.