Hurricane Dorian: Bahamians use jet skis to rescue people from floods

People in the Bahamas turned to the use of jet skis to help rescue others who were stranded in high waters after the devastation wrought on the island nation by Hurricane Dorian.

Speaking to CNN, Michael Pintard, the Bahamas’ Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, said he, his wife, and his young daughter were trapped in their home in Freeport on Grand Bahama island by rising floodwaters, but were rescued by a group of jet skiers led by Jensen Burrows and d’Sean Smith.

Burrows and Smith, who are members of the Grand Bahama Jet Ski Club, led a group of more than a dozen jet skiers in rescuing people stranded after Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas with record-breaking winds, heavy rains, and a 20-foot storm surge.

In total, the group picked up 100 people on Tuesday and took them to safety, CNN reported, citing the rescuers and minister Pintard.

Read more: ‘Our government failed us’: Bahamians were left to coordinate rescue efforts on social media after Hurricane Dorian

Rescuers ferried people on the jet skis to a highway bridge, one of the few places on Grand Bahama that was not flooded.

“The wind was pelting you, so it felt like rocks being pelted at you. I had his daughter and my friend, and the jet ski tipped over,” Smith told CNN, describing his rescue of Pintard and his family.

“I was concerned about them. I didn’t want to know they died if I didn’t try and help them.” Smith added. “That’s the reason I went out in the first place.”

Pintard described the jet ski he was rescued on capsizing twice as he was taken to safety.

We thought it would pretty much be a routine ride out, but the waves were still pretty strong, and the wind was fairly high. We capsized … my wife and I, at least twice,” Pintard told CNN. “My daughter capsized on a jet ski as well.”

The jet ski rescues are just the latest in a series of heroic escape stories to come out of the Bahamas since it was devastated by Hurricane Dorian, the joint-strongest storm ever to make landfall in the Atlantic basin.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that a blind man in the Abaco Islands carrying his severely disabled son to safety through neck-deep floodwaters after the roof of their house was blown off by the storm.

“It was scary, so scary,” Brent Lowe, whose adult son has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk unassisted, said.

Read more: A blind father in the Bahamas waded to safety with his severely disabled adult son on his shoulders in a miracle escape from Hurricane Dorian

The Times also reported on the story of a woman who was trapped under the roof of her family home for 17 hours, before being found by her family dog.

Read more on Hurricane Dorian:

Cruise ships from Norwegian and Royal Caribbean are bringing supplies to the Bahamas to help victims of Hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian made landfall in North Carolina Friday morning. The storm has killed at least 30 people in the Bahamas and 5 in the US.

Heartwarming stories of people rescuing animals from Hurricane Dorian