Florida

Helicopter Pilot Discovers Villagers Stranded in Debris in the Bahamas

MEDIC Corps said the debris-filled village had been overlooked because it was located off main roads, and the residents didn’t have vehicles or speak English

A helicopter pilot volunteering in the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian was shocked to discover this week that an area full of debris from the storm was inhabited by up to 40 people, NBC News reports.

Justin Johnson, who owns Timberview Helicopters in Destin, Florida, with his wife, Angela, was heading to Fox Town on Little Abaco Island. The couple was in the hurricane-ravaged Bahamas with MEDIC Corps, a volunteer group that serves people affected by natural disasters.

"Being there, you can't process that that really just happened,” Angela Johnson said about the devastation left by the storm, which flattened whole towns and left at least 50 people dead.

MEDIC Corps said the debris-filled village had been overlooked because it was located off main roads, and the residents didn’t have vehicles or speak English. The stranded people were in desperate need of supplies and support, the group said in a statement.

Many were undocumented Haitian immigrants who “are afraid of being deported so it is sometimes difficult to provide evacuation to these communities and they aren’t the first to show themselves,” MEDIC Corps said.

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