By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

SEARCH and recovery teams have not yet got to the bottom of mounds of rubble in certain areas of Abaco, including The Mudd, making it more probable for the Hurricane Dorian death toll to substantially increase.

The official death toll rose to 51 yesterday after the Royal Bahamas Police Force said the remains of a Caucasian man was discovered in the Marsh Harbour area shortly after 10am.

There have been 43 deaths in Abaco and eight in Grand Bahama, according to police. For the past week the official number of casualties stood at 50.

According to Royal Bahamas Police Force Commissioner Anthony Ferguson earlier yesterday, death declarations had stalled because there had been no recovery of bodies.

When asked by The Tribune how much of the island officials had been able to search, the police chief was unable to say. Instead he insisted that the effort would not be completed overnight as crews continued to tackle a vast land mass.

“It stopped because there was no recovery, but I can give you a bit of information that things are looking more hopeful today,” the commissioner said during NEMA’s daily press conference. “I (was) getting information just before I came here that we may have seen some semblance of body remains and so as they probe today hopefully by this afternoon I’ll be able to give some confirmation as to what that is.”

It was NEMA’s director, Captain Stephen Russell who raised the possibility that there could be more remains discovered. The government has repeatedly said it was their expectation that death numbers as a result of Dorian would be substantial.

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands has said the final death toll could be “staggering”.

Capt Russell said: “There are a number of teams – the USAID is here, a team from Canada likewise is conducting a search for us. Again we sought to put up a grid so that they can work in varying sections of the island instead of crossing one another.

“The main challenge with the continued search and recovery, it’s quite a bit of debris, heavy debris, on the island – in The Mudd and other areas.

“You would have seen huge 20ft, 40ft containers spread across the whole community. Again now they have gone as far as they can with the resources…they had the sniffer dogs.

“But we now need to move through lifting those heavy equipment or containers out of the way, cars out of the way so we can really get down to the ground level to see if there are any bodies of deceased persons in those areas.

“That is our main task now moving forward this week here to get to the ground level by simply removing some stuff.

“You saw they had a large huge crane here that we had over the last few months. That is now in Abaco. It is actually in action helping us to move those containers out of the way so we can get to ground level to see what may be at the lower level.”

Continued recovery efforts could take several months, he told reporters.

“Recovery can go into another two or three months. It’s a slow process. A huge portion of debris is in there. It’s a slow process of moving things out of the way and gradually moving forward.”

Commissioner Ferguson also responded to concerns about looting and house burglaries in Abaco.

He insisted that there are sufficient officers on the ground.

“Marsh Harbour, Abaco after the storm is in total disarray,” he said. “You have blockage all over the place and so therefore when we deploy teams into an environment you have to get familiar with the environment and be able to know how to manoeuvre.

“So I just urge those persons to be patient. You had the opportunity to go to Marsh Harbour and it was total destruction and so really what you have seen with your own two eyes there is really not much of a building there just a whole lot of rubble and so we are committed along with my colleague from the Defence Force, we are committed to making sure that there is safety provided on the islands of Abaco.”

Asked how many officers were on the ground, he said “plenty”.

Earlier this month, officials said a total of 274 Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers were on Abaco.

These officers have made arrests for stealing-related crimes.

“Certainly we have arrested several persons (for looting). We arrested persons last night and I am pretty sure that as long as people continue to go afar of the law we will arrest them,” Commissioner Ferguson said.

“Let me just say we have adequate officers on the ground.”

Rob Jenkins, team leader for USAID, said there was still much work to do, despite “amazing” efforts that have taken place.

He said: “As mentioned there is the possibility that there are still some people in need of urgent assistance that have not been located yet, but there have been many, many surveys both aerial and on the ground of the cays that people can get out to.

“Just today we have another team that’s visiting various locations looking at water and sanitation and health needs in various places and we will stay here this DART team on the ground in support of your government until the needs have been met and we can see that a recovery is underway.”