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UNCG Student From Bahamas Agonizes For Family and Country

"I've lived through a hurricane every year since from like 0 to 18, this is the worst that I have seen"

GREENSBORO, N.C. — UNC Greensboro senior, 23-year-old, Arlett Johnson has spent many hours on social media over the past few days looking for news from family and friends in the Bahamas.

"Every time I scroll through social media it's, 'we're missing people or these people are missing' and that's hard if you think about that. People are missing their family members and they have no idea where they are," said Johnson.

Johnson's family lives in Nassau, Bahamas but she said her family is originally from the Grand Bahama Island. 

"It's the worst that I've seen in my lifetime and I'm only 23, but I've lived through a hurricane every year since from like 0 to 18. This is the worst that I have seen, the damage, the people who are hungry, who have nothing now," reflected Johnson.

Much of the island, a foremost tourist destination, was battered by Hurricane Dorian which left a wave of destruction behind. Homes have been cast to rubble.

Since the deadly and destructive hurricane swept through the small island and images have been emerging, Johnson has been anxious and concerned about her family there. While the storm was raging and floodwaters rising, one of Johnson's cousins became trapped and had to climb onto the roof of the house with some other neighbors. Her cousin, whose name is T.J, had just a little battery power left on his phone to call for help via social media.

"I am looking at this and it says the Coast Guard never even made it to them," she said.

Johnson said help eventually arrived, but only after several hours spent on the roof. 

"Thankfully the waters receded enough and so he and the other young boys were able to get off the house and were able to catch a ride with somebody to an area that was not as flooded. He was there when none of us could really reach him so thank goodness for something, for some social media," she added.

Now she says she can only scroll helplessly on social media looking through Facebook in concern for family, friends, and countrymen.

"You just know that people are devastated, people are suffering and it's hard because it's your people. We're not a large country, we have about 300,000+ people and losing any of that is going to be affecting a lot of people's lives right now."

Johnson is hoping to connect with other Bahamians in the Triad and the Triangle to see what help they can get to their homeland.

"It's like a fearful feeling that you have knowing that if something happens to your family, you're not even close enough to reach them and you can't do anything."

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