IT WAS ALL GONE

Another survivor’s tale; Hurricane Dorian shattered innumerable lives.

The destruction of a Category 5 does not discriminate, it devastates. Prior to September of 2019, when you entered Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas, on a vessel, there was a post-card perfect rocky peninsula that protects that large harbour from the north and east topped by beautiful, sprawling homes and gardens, an area known as Pelican Shores. After two days of pommeling winds, tornadoes and the tremendous storm surge of Hurricane Dorian, the homes were either unrecognizably destroyed or missing completely from their foundations, the vegetation was gone, the palm trees just sticks. Four and a half years later, some of those homes have been rebuilt, but many have not, a stark reminder of those forty-eight hours.

Dorian shattered lives immediately after landfall. Nearly five years later, the destruction dominates the neighborhood.

Minnie Key, originally from Cherokee Sound, Lake City and Spring City, Abaco, and her husband of fifty-four years, Herbert, a Marsh Harbour native, had built one of those beautiful waterfront homes in the late 70’s and raised their three children there. Prominent members of the community and owners of a Commercial Rental called Dove Plaza, it was their dream home with a pool, vaulted wood ceilings and windows everywhere to take in the view, it was a proud indication of a lifetime of hard work and success. They raised their three children, Brent Key, Priscilla (Pinder) and Matthew Key there. The Keys did not rebuild; the four-bedroom home is now just bare walls.

She reminisces, ”I was fourteen when Herbert and I started dating; he was twenty-two in …December of 1969. Herbert …would come south the few miles between us to visit on Saturday nights. In June of 1970, I turned fifteen and on July 30 we were married…I came to live in Marsh Harbour where we had lived until Hurricane Dorian, first in a home which Herbert started to build at the age of fourteen.” They then built the one you see above.

The Keys home was located near the word ‘Shores’ on the peninsula. Their business, Dove Plaza, #7 on the map, was inundated by storm surge and mud.

Minnie was kind enough to relate her story, and a very memorable one it is. “On the 3^rd day the winds died down and we were able to go a little way and walk the balance to The Dove Plaza where we saw the devastation, Dove Plaza was mostly gone; it was heartbreaking to see so much destruction , we had worked so hard all our married life and overnight it all was gone. It  just shows you that material things are not what you want to put your trust into. Mentally the trauma of this kind of devastation changes you; I cannot say for the better but changes you. You learn to value LIFE not things.”

The Keys were not able to get back and see their home on the water, roads were blocked and the destruction was IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE (see my post with this title April 7^th, 2024) https://janiceannewheeler.substack.com/p/impossible-to-imagine. A month or so later, she told me, “Neighbors sent us a few pictures of what was left of our home.”

The destruction was "traumatic." And life altering.

I asked Minnie the same question I had asked the survivor from the other side of the Harbour; was there any warning?” Here is the rest of her survival story, in her own words with her own emphasis (in capitals). They encountered the most powerful natural force on earth.

“We knew a hurricane was coming but had the mind frame as all the other hurricanes in the past that it will be fine as we had been through many hurricanes with no problems. BUT WE WERE SO WRONG ON THIS ONE. Where our home in Pelican Shores was on the water, so we decided to move to our first home with a little elevation. Thank God we did.

Dorian started around 10am on September 1, 2019; after about an hour in, the winds started picking up really bad, I called Herbert from the bedroom, I was in the kitchen as I heard a very loud noise but did not know where it was coming from. Herbert came and we both went to the family room only to see the roof lifting off the house. Herbert said, “Come let’s get out of here.” So we turned around to run for the front door and then there was an explosion which was the roof blowing off and then we turned around only to see the furniture being sucked up into the heavens. We ran to the front door, grabbed my bag with passport and some papers, opened the door with the wind blowing so hard and raining really heavy could not see anything, we had to get down on our knees and crawl to the truck. Once in the truck we moved to the buildings next door  to try to get under- lee away from the wind. I had water and snacks in the truck from the grocery store.

For the next three days we went round and round the building trying to survive. At one time we were in the back of the building and the wind blew a large piece of tin right for us, but thank God it landed just before hitting the truck and Herbert ran the truck on top of it until we could get out to try to secure it .

The darkness of the night was so, so bad the noise of the wind is something we will never forget (IT’S ALL BEDDED INTO OUR MINDS FOREVER) it sure changes you and what you think in life is important.

After the worst was over all we could do was thank the Lord for his mercy in saving our lives and every day after that’s the first thing we do, every day. Thank God for life.

On the third day a Bahamas Telecommunication employee came by, stopped to check on us and he had a phone that worked which he allowed me to use to call my kids. WHAT JOY. To hear their voices. They had been up around the clock making calls trying to try to get information on our well-being and how to get us out as soon as possible .

On the 4^th day we were able to get to the (Marsh Harbour) airport, was there from 7 in the morning to 8 at night before we were taken to Nassau, the Capital and were put in a hotel …with no charge food and board, they even picked us up at the airport. 

After five days there our friends in Okeechobee, Florida sent a plane to Nassau to pick us up and bring us to the US where our friends from Pompano, Florida picked us up and took us to their home, where my son Matthew flew down to drive us back up to (their home in) Tennessee.”

Minnie Key (left) and Herbert (right) with Annapolis Cruising couple Steven & Audrey Uhthoff circa 1980. The families have stayed in touch for over 40 years.

The Keys were incredibly fortunate to have friends who were able to help them leave the country in such a generous way. They have returned since the storm but only briefly. Hurricane Insurance is prohibitively expensive in the Bahamas and without that they stayed in Tennessee. Their children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren will never get to see the home they created together, and that is just one of the innumerable tragedies of Hurricane Dorian. They are happy to have simply survived and know that so many of their fellow Bahamians, friends and neighbors did not. 

The final take-away; “…value LIFE not things.”

Author’s note: Hurricanes are truly the ultimate SPAR WITH MOTHER NATURE. Steadfast is anchored just offshore from the Keys’ home, where the ‘after’ photo was taken today. I was able to connect with Minnie through my husband, Steve (his parents are pictured above). They lived aboard a wooden boat and spent the winters in the Abacos; the families became the best of friends. He remembers the 40-foot roof timbers being installed as a child and many good times in the now-decimated kitchen.

Dorian was such a large and long event that the entire region will long bear the scars. After researching these stories, my heart goes out to all of those shattered lives. J