An Oro-Medonte teen is trapped in the Bahamas following the massive devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian as it swept through the Caribbean island in the last few days.
Grant Goodbrand, a 17-year-old who's going into Grade 12 at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Barrie, left Canada on Sunday, Aug. 25 to visit his girlfriend's family in the Bahamas — where they had recently moved — for what was supposed to be a weeklong vacation. He was due back home on Sunday, Sept. 1.
It quickly turned into a horrible ordeal, one the teen described to his dad as "apocalyptic."
"As I've told him in texts, you'll have a big challenge ahead now," Grant's father, Dave Goodbrand, told BarrieToday. "The storm is gone and the sun will start shining, but you're going to see destruction and other things you don't expect to see. There's also going to be sewage run-off, bacteria and disease, so you want to be careful."
Seven people have been reported dead in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian devastated the country, which includes more than 700 islands of varying sizes. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis has reported some areas have been "decimated" and he expects the death toll to rise.
As Hurricane Dorian moved east across the Atlantic Ocean, it hovered over the Bahamas for several hours, causing significant destruction, before moving off and heading toward the U.S. mainland.
On Sept. 1, the hurricane reached Category 5 intensity, with one-minute sustained winds of 295 kilometres per hour. It made landfall in Elbow Cay in the Bahamas that afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon, it had been downgraded to Category 2. This morning, it was about 160 kilometres off the eastern coast of Florida.
"There will be armchair quarterbacks (asking) why didn't we get Grant out of there earlier, but we were monitoring the hurricane down in the Costa Rica area and it looked like it was going to continue more northwesterly," Goodbrand said. "As it got into the weekend, it did a complete left turn, dog leg, and went straight over the Bahamas.
"We were hoping for the best and that he would enjoy his trip and been home on Sunday," added Goodbrand, who is a longtime Barrie police officer. "There were so many different (storm) models that were being presented at that time, so you couldn't really predict where it was going to go.
"Unfortunately, by the time it was determined that it was imminent and would be turning in their direction and coming their way, all the flights had been cancelled and the airport had been closed. Their only option was to bunker down and ride the storm out."
They were initially in the family's hurricane-rated condominium in Freeport, a harbour community of about 27,000 people on the island of Grand Bahama, but have since moved to another location on higher ground and with stronger storm shutters after the condominium was destroyed.
"That's where they've spent the last three or four days," said Goodbrand, who has had sporadic contact with his son throughout the storm. "We're very fortunate that they had this contact with another family (on higher ground)."
They may also be moving to another location today.
"I don't know why, because I haven't been able to confirm that," added Goodbrand, whose last contact with Grant was Tuesday night. "We were fortunate, because the place they were in had a generator and the wifi connection continued. The cellphone signal died and obviously the land-line telephones were done, but were able to connect by text.
"Now that they're off the wifi, I can't connect with them to find out what their plan is, why and where they're going, but hopefully we'll hear from them soon."
When his messages don't go through, Goodbrand says it makes his mind play out several possible scenarios for why that may be, such as storm surge or other deadly after-effects from the hurricane.
"You can't help but think that, so it makes sleeping... it's just hard because you're worried," he said. "You have to wait until you get a response, which could be the following morning. That's what's frustrating. When you do have the connectivity, it's not that bad and you can kind of stay in touch and get status updates."
However, Goodbrand says he's reassured to know Grant is in the care of his girlfriend's family, who had prepared for the possibility of a severe storm.
To have to sit back and watch while waiting for updates, it's been emotionally taxing on the family, including Grant's mom Lisa, who's an elementary school teacher, and his younger sister, 15-year-old Gwen.
"It's been a busy couple of days and we're just getting drained," Goodbrand said. "It's hard not being there. He is a 17-year-old and they're starting to spread their wings, but it's his first trip away without us being with him. We want the best for Grant and we want him to be safe, but also do whatever he can to help and come back with a different perspective on things."
Goodbrand says he has been in touch with Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Embassy in the Bahamas to let them know that their son is trapped in the island country.
"Even as a cop and taking training on emergency management, you still get caught up in it because it's your family," he said, who added he received a reply from the embassy within 45 minutes that they would do anything they could to help by getting Grant and other Canadians out of there as soon as possible.
He's been receiving updates from the embassy in Nausau about the rescue efforts, which has been "reassuring. It takes away some of the stress, because you know there are processes in place, but you can't help but worry."
Goodbrand says he has a friend who went through 2005's Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans who stressed to him that the initial storm is only one factor, and sometimes the worst side is the aftermath, including the trail of damage and potentially lethal scenarios left in its wake.
"Your infrastructure is completely devastated, there's social disorder because there's no real order in the community because the police aren't there," he said. "Their homes have been destroyed, the police stations have been destroyed, the airport has been unfortuantely destroyed, the hosptial has been destroyed. There's just not a lot of social order and people are starting to get desperate for food and water, because they've been bunkered down for a few days.
"It locked people in their residences longer than they probably had anticipated, so they would have gone through their supplies quicker than they thought they would have," added Goodbrand, who hopes people here at home will also do what they can to help people who have been affected by Hurricane Dorian.
