CULLMAN, Ala. – Great Guana Cay, Bahamas is a narrow islet of the Abaco Islands and also where Cullman County native and 1989 Fairview graduate Dwight Aldridge has called home for the past 12 years. He and his neighbors knew Hurricane Dorian was headed toward their island paradise, but they never could have imagined that the Category 5 storm would stall directly on top of their tiny island for close to 48 hours.
Aldridge is now back in Cullman after surviving the historic catastrophic storm and is working tirelessly to help his neighbors left behind in the unimaginable aftermath.
Still unable to eat or sleep 12 days after the traumatizing experience, he wrote to the Tribune:
“Thank you. The outpouring of support has been amazing for Hurricane Dorian relief. The Bahamian people are a proud and strong group of people. They live in a beautiful place that has been ravaged by this historic, horrific storm. They need, and will need, your help. My name is Dwight Aldridge. I am from Cullman, Alabama. I live and work in Great Guana Cay, Abaco Bahamas. I was on the ground during the storm and can tell you that the photos do not do it justice. I’m writing this not asking for money for me but for the thousands of people affected by Hurricane Dorian. If you want to help, I will let you know the organizations that are already set up helping. These organizations are just a few of the many that are already in full relief mode. These organizations are giving 100% of all donations to the Bahamas and are personally carrying supplies to the Bahamas by boat, ship or plane. If you have been through an event like this, and have advice, please contact me. If you have already given, thank you. If you are holding back waiting because you don’t know where to help, contact me, I will give you the names and phone numbers of Bahamian friends and Bahamian churches and you can send to them directly. PLEASE HELP.”
Dwight’s Dorian experience
“We started evacuating as soon as helicopter could fly and even before they should fly. We were getting all the injured and older people and kids off there. There was a pregnant lady and we needed to get those people off,” Aldridge said.
By the time he left the island, all the people who needed off the island had already gone.
He added, “We had no casualties- 151 people and nobody,”
He recalled, “We had an older couple and they were in their house and half their house, gone. They had to crawl across the road in 200 mph winds to get over to the next house and hope that it would stand. All of the houses down there don’t have water so they collect the water out of the gutters and in cisterns under the house. There were people under the house holding onto these cisterns because the top of their house is gone, for 30 hours, not knowing if anybody was going to come get them.
“I can’t describe the smell. This was five days after, and I am sure it’s a lot worse now. Saltwater smells really bad, and if you leave it in a cup on the counter for two days, it’s going to smell really bad. Plus all the insects and animals and whatever else are decaying…peoples’ refrigerators and mold in the houses.”
At last report, the Bahamian government estimates that 1,300 people are either dead or missing. Aldridge said he feels that number is probably accurate based on his knowledge and what he saw.
Aldridge showed The Tribune a video of one of his employees, along with his family, that was filmed during the storm, saying, “These are people who are full of life. Strong people!”
The wife can be heard in the video speaking over the screaming winds: “This is us, in the attic. The water is up to the roof in the attic.”
The husband can be seen at an opening in the attic staring out over the carnage. The disbelief, sadness and surrender can be seen in his expression.
Aldridge said, “How does he get out of that house and get to shelter? He and his wife and two kids survived, as well as their two dogs. Right outside of that attic is a 10-foot wave coming through the island, plus 200 mph winds.”
With ferocious winds and water everywhere, where does a person go?
Aldridge said, “You better already be there. You’ll hear about storm surge. The storm surge is about 8-12 feet. That 8-12 feet of water level raised, and you’ve got 20-foot waves coming in on top of that. A tsunami, a Cat 5 has all of that. It’s got tornadoes, tsunamis and floods. We were under it after it hit us for about 30 hours. It was 40-something hours total. For about two days, we couldn’t leave the house. Water just poured in through every light fixture and everywhere there was a hole in the ceiling. If there wasn’t, it made its own holes.”
Aldridge said he hears and sees the images repeatedly in his mind.
“There were horrific scenes.”
Aldridge saw things he isn’t ready to share but knows that hundreds of people are indeed lost.
He stressed that the Grand Bahamas, including Nassau, were relatively unaffected. The western Bahamas and the Caribbean were spared; the small islands to the east and northeast were destroyed.
Aldridge was also amazed by how many animals survived the storm.
“I’ve never known what the barometric pressure felt like before this storm,” he said. “This one guy’s gauge, the pressure dropped off the screen. I felt that, and the animals know it’s coming. The birds were gone, and you don’t have birds caught up in a hurricane. Cats and animals, they survived. We were cleaning up and this crab came up like it wanted to say hi to me. They are usually hiding, but he just came right up to me, said hello, and walked off.”
Another thing Aldridge noticed was all the leaves are gone. The once lush green island with beautiful blue water is now brown. He said 180 mph sustained winds and 220 mph gusts picked up the sea water full of salt and sand and stripped everything on Great Guana Cay.
How to help
“I’m looking for people who might have been through it that could give me advice on what to do,” Aldridge said. “I have five Bahamians coming to Cullman who have never been to Alabama or anywhere. They are coming with a backpack–no clothes or nothing. Some of them are children. I am looking for help for them. When the two months go by and they go back, I want them to have money in their hands to be able to at least buy plywood to close up windows and doors and have a place to sleep. Maybe a generator or air conditioner, I don’t know.”
Aldridge is out of a job but is still doing whatever he can to help his neighbors waiting in a line to get off the island. They need clothes and food, and Aldridge is working to provide them a place to stay. He had purchased in Cullman County a home six months ago that is in need of remodeling and lacks floors, but he is working around the clock to have the home available to them.
Aldridge said, “We are looking for beds and furniture. I don’t know if I have waited too late, because I was talking to a man this morning that said it wasn’t even on the news anymore.”
Aldridge finds it difficult to watch the images on television. There are no places on the island for people to stay.
“I could take 100 guys down there right now, but there’s nowhere for them to stay.”
Aldridge said, “I didn’t eat for five days after. I felt guilty and I would sit down and see food or go to Wal-Mart and see all the food and just start crying. I couldn’t handle it. My brother and mother and all these people are really pushing me and saying that I am going to have to stop. I’m close. I slept last night for the first time in 12 days.”
Aldridge provided a short list of places people can donate and know that the money is going directly to the islands. For additional information, email Aldridge at daldridge.bakersbayclub@yahoo.com.
- Panama Baptist Church (helping with relocation of refugees in Alabama)
- Glen P. Rolle, pastor in Nassau (helping with refugees in Nassau)
- Ricky Sands Charters (#AbacoStrong on Instagram)- Ricky is from and lives on Great Guana Cay Abaco. He has been, and is continuing, to get aid and supplies directly to the Cay Islands in Abaco Bahamas.
Locally, Curt’s Closet is seeking donations in order to help the refugees arriving in Cullman.
Curt’s Closet Founder Ashley Wilson said, “If anyone wants to make a donation to the family, they are welcome to drop them off or mail to Curt’s Closet. They can state that they want it to go to the victims of Dorian and that way it may be tax-deductible for them. We will keep these funds separate and give them to the family.”
Aldridge is a firm believer in paying it forward and tells a story from after the storm.
“I was sitting there the first day in Nassau, which was Thursday after the storm. I was going to eat breakfast and I looked at the breakfast and couldn’t eat it. It was something I would have really liked, too. I guess the people sitting next to me realized I was in turmoil over what was going on. The man asked if he could talk to me and while he was talking to me, his wife paid for my breakfast. I don’t need the money, but I couldn’t tell them no. They leave, but before, they put their hands on me and prayed with me. The guy then came back and gave me $50 and said they want to pay for my lunch, too. I was an emotional wreck and texted my brother and he said to accept it. He said, ‘Accept it. That makes them feel good to give that to you so accept it and pass it on.’”
He left and went straight to the pharmacy.
“I’m in the pharmacy and I am listening to this woman at the register as I am up there with antibiotic creams and things because I’m covered in stuff. This woman, I could tell she was on the phone with somebody, trying to get them medicine. She’s getting a little bottle of this and asks if she wants one or two. I asked her if she was talking to someone in Freeport or Abaco. She said that they were in Freeport and I told her they needed this and gave her what I had. I told her to get what they want, but to send them this too because it was antibiotic powders and creams. I went back and got me two more bottles. I told them I wanted to pay for hers and mine and it was $49.92, and I had just been given $50. Things like that have been happening to me.”
Copyright 2019 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
