On September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian plowed through the Bahamas, particularly causing a devastating amount of destruction to the Abaco Islands. Dorian’s winds, reaching 185mph, became the highest ever recorded to hit landfall on the Atlantic side. Structures were leveled, lives were lost, and the rebuild is too overwhelming to even comprehend at this moment.
Going into our recent interview with model Chase Carter, a native Bahamian, we knew very little about Hurricane Dorian’s impact. Pop-up news bulletins only tell us as much as a headline really can, and though we were aware of the hurricane’s upward path along the East Coast, there was a naive understanding of what really happened on the first of the month in the Bahamas.
Our meet-up with Chase started with the usual catch-up questions, as we asked her how NYFW was coming along. Was her schedule crazy packed? What’s new in her world? But as our conversation continued, Chase raised her concerns about the place she calls home, and hit us with facts that no news outlet was distributing to the states. What we learned was too daunting not to share with others. Getting the right information out there was important to her, so it’s important to us.
Yes, we spoke about how she got her start in the modeling industry, how she picked her Insta handle, and her sports of choice. But first, we wanted to dive into high-level issues...
When did the hurricane touch down, in the Bahamas?
It was over the Bahamas for about 72 hours. It was the slowest moving hurricane, it moved one mile per hour. At a snail pace. It actually stayed over Freeport Grand Bahamas’ second island for... I would say two days. 36 hours to the exact, but I mean it was crazy. It hit Freeport at a category 4, but like I said, moved at a snail pace. It hit Abaco, which is pretty much, our second main-populated island at a category 5 to 220 mph winds. So, that’s unheard of. We haven’t had a hurricane like that since 1934 ever documented in all of our lives, and to touch landfall. So that was the biggest hurricane to touch landfall in our generation at least since 1934. Category 5. It literally could be a category 6, but you can’t get higher than a category 5.
And, what part of the island are you from?
I’m from Nassau, so those are the two northern islands that got hit. Basically, Nassau, Freeport, and Abaco are the three largest economies in the Bahamas. A lot of people have family and family friends in Freeport actually, but Freeport’s 80% underwater and they do not think that it will be able to recover, and they’re giving the estimation for Abaco to get back on their feet four to five years. They even estimated at $82 billion dollars to make it like how it was before this hurricane.
So, your family’s okay. But they’re doing everything they can to help?
So, my family is okay and everybody in Nassau is fine, which is our main city as you can put quotation marks on city. But our main Island in the Bahamas. They’re doing fine and I have never seen the community come together in my life more than I have seen this Bahamians. Everyone has… when I say have put their lives on hold and have dropped everything in this last week because it just happened over last weekend. I mean, I’m saying people have shut down literally their businesses to be there day in and day out. 5 a.m., they go until 2 a.m. And now that Bahamas Air (which is our Bahamian airline company) has gone to Abaco and Freeport to, well mostly Abaco because that’s the only runway that’s kind of open right now there’s only one runway on the island. They’re evacuating about to 500 people each trip. So yesterday, they made three trips and the last trip was at 1 a.m. in the morning. So, all those volunteers are there to get these Bahamians off the planes and greet them. They have to get registered because our government’s made it that way.
Then once they’re registered in the system, if they’re with family... or if they’re getting relocated they get to stay at a hotel, which is one of the hotels–Breezes–that these charities have put together money to buy rooms for these people. But, this is short term I’m talking only up to a week...
Right, because then where do they go?
Exactly, so what we’re working on is, there are a lot of organizations in the Bahamas but mainly I haven’t had the name for them. They’re not official yet but they’re coming out. It’s going to be just housing for them long-term. Because you know, up to a week, that’s great but then where are these people going to go? No, it has to be up to six months to a year for everybody to get back on their feet, and that’s why I open my own fund because I know the people who are in action at the moment, doing stuff on-ground. Volunteering all their time and all their assets, all their own personal boats and busses, with their companies and people and employees. Everybody who just donated so much effort. It’s truly amazing.
So I’m going to get down there next week and I am going to go to Florida first, stock up on the essentials. Everyone actually has been so generous and so amazing with getting supplies down there. I mean, there’s more than you can ever think of already–food, water, generators, and supplies and the basic necessities, but these people are coming off of these planes with garbage bags full of… that’s their suitcases and it’s like nothing, some people don’t have anything. They’re coming off without shoes, without bras, without underwear, and these kids, when they’re coming off the plane they are cleaning all of children because they have open wounds and all that kind of stuff. Making sure they get the instant medical attention that they need. Because these people are in toxic environments for up to a week now, and we just don’t know what kind of damage that could do long-term. They’re getting medical attention literally as soon as they get off the plane. And then there’s another organization who’s moreso handling getting fuel to these islands because there are some islanders that still want to stay on the island. Very few, but there are some. The government is not really covering what is really going on, and I’m happy that Billy-Rae Cyrus came out with that tweet about… one sec, let me make sure I get this.I’ll get the exact tweet for you. Here it is. So, he came out with this tweet: “HELP @realdonaldtrump can you please call the Bahamian government and have NEMA cut red tape and let planes with relief land in Abaco. Tried for 2 days to send drs and supplies and couldn’t get clearance! This is a life or death situation.”
So, I’m not going to talk bad about our government, but since there were so many people chipping in and helping out, air traffic control went crazy. They weren’t like, you can’t clear. We have one runway open in Abaco and we are trying to evacuate all these people. People are sending supplies for the people still on the island but our main priority is getting these people off the island. Because, like I said, it is a toxic environment and nobody can really live there. And the other island is 80% underwater.
I was wondering… that’s gone?
It’s gone. Unfortunately, it’s gone. So they’re mainly focusing on Abaco which is unfortunate for people of Grand Bahamas Freeport. They’re getting those people out and into Nassau... they’re relocating them to their families and that’s why they have to register. So the government has red tape, meaning they’re not allowing any other traffic control to approve any of these people who are trying to come in and help. And like they said send doctors and actual aid. So the American government in stepping in and you know I’m just grateful for the help that we are getting from all ends, but what people really need to understand and know is these huge organizations which are incredible. I am not ever going to talk bad, as like I said, wherever you donate will go to the Bahamians and will help the Bahamas. So I can lead you in the direction if you want people and your money to go to something that’s doing something now. Then I can definitely tell you who those people are and are being stopped by big corporations because everyone’s being held off, and it’s not these corporations’ fault or organizations. Let’s say for example the Red Cross, it’s because there are just so many of them coming in. They’re having a hard time dealing with it, and kind of weighing out all this love and divvy-ing it around as best as possible.
Also, another thing is some of these islanders don’t want the supplies. When they bring supplies to these islands they say, “No. We don’t want them.” Because it has become so dangerous on these islands. We’re talking about life and death situations. These people are fighting for their lives regardless of who they are where they’re from or whatever. Whoever was in this hurricane are fighting desperately to stay alive. Even if a house has a roof over their head or has no roof but windows and walls, every house is destroyed. They said 13,000 houses are gone. But 17,000 up. It was a total of 17,000 house in Abaco, 13,000 are gone. Okay but the 4,000 remaining ones are either roof no windows, no door, no protection. And then the other ones are walls, no roof. So, no power for three months. That’s the destination time of even getting power back. So when people are bringing supplies to these islands, they’re turning them away for their own safety. They don’t want anybody to get word that they’re the ones who have supplies and put their lives in vain. There’s a lot of looting going on. This actually came at the perfect time because I knew a lot of this information, but it was more inside information you weren’t allowed to share but now finally [can]. I just saw something on CNN and Daily Mail came out with the looting thing. I’m very happy they did because then I have more freedom to be able to talk about what’s really going on via my social media. At least letting people know and be aware of how dangerous these islands are. There’s a voice note that was shared with me, and they told me to spread this voice note around. It was a Bahamian saying that he was in Abaco after this hurricane 5. He said, “Bull-curse word.” And then he said, I walk the streets trying to find my family. There are two thousand people dead, the morgues (11:13) are full, over packed. All the places. America has sent about, I think it was a thousand 15 by 40 cold containers to put these bodies in and they are only saying that five are dead. That’s so bogus. That’s just completely bogus information. This guy also said on the voice note, because he wanted to spread awareness to the Bahamians of Nassau, the island I am on, to let them know how crazy it is. This is a toxic environment. You walk by, oh 20 dead, 5 dead. You walk down one street you can see dead bodies literally floating around, as the picture sent on my phone. They ask for people to help.