More than 23 of Sidney Poitier’s family members are feared missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, the actor’s nephew as said. Jeffrey Poitier,66, said that they were still waiting for news from the relatives, including his sister Barbara and his adult children in Freeport, Bahamas. The family is one of hundreds desperately scrabbling to locate their loved ones a week after the category 5 hurricane wreaked devastation across the islands. In some cases entire families were missing. "We still couldn't find any, nor have we heard from them," Mr Poitier said late last week. "We are still looking for and waiting for them to appear soon. It has us all worried. We are trying to reach out to them using every means available to us but we are not hearing anything. We are deeply worried." More than 500 Bahamians belong to the extended family of Sidney Poitier, the acclaimed actor who was born in Miami to Bahamian parents and who grew up in the Bahamas. A perfect storm | How climate change has made Hurricane Dorian worse Up to 70,000 people have been left homeless and are in need of life-saving assistance, while Great Abaco is said to be virtually uninhabitable, with bodies piled up and witnesses saying there is a 'smell of death' as corpses float in the water. The official death toll last night stood at 43 - 35 in the Abaco Islands and eight in Grand Bahama – but Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned that it was likely to climb "significantly”. The scramble to escape the worst-hit islands continued yesterday as some residents complained that their Government was nowhere to be seen. The Ministry of Defence this weekend announced that it would be sending a second Royal Navy ship, HMS Protector, to assist the disaster relief efforts which will set sail from Bermuda today (MONDAY). The team from RFA Mounts Bay, which is stationed in the Caribbean throughout hurricane season, were some of the first responders on the ground after Dorian passed. Commanding Officer, Captain Rob Anders, said: "Certainly the teams on the ground were very, very shocked. They say that the devastation is severe and in many cases the worst that they have seen." As well as shelter kits, food and water they have deployed heavy plant equipment to help clear roads and teams have been staying on the ground to assist the locals. Captain Anders told the Telegraph: “It is safe to say we have been quite busy.” A loosely coordinated armada of passenger planes, helicopters and both private and government boats and ships - including redirected cruise liners - converged on the Abacos to help with evacuations, both to Nassau and to the US mainland. The Coast Guard said all Bahamian ports had now reopened and it had deployed nine cutters to the islands. Six of its MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters had so far rescued 290 people. And more than 260 Abacos residents arrived Friday in Nassau on a government-chartered ferry, part of the first wave of people to be evacuated off the archipelago's most decimated islands. Crewmembers from Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas cruise ship pack food as part of the company's disaster relief operation. Credit: Cristobal Herrera/Rex But the Prime Minister has warned that not all Abaco residents, one of the biggest islands in the Bahamas, can be accommodated in Nassau. Chamika Durosier, who was waiting at the airport to escape on Saturday, said: “"People have no food. People have no water, and it's not right. They should have been gone. "Dead bodies are still around and it's not sanitary." Even though Dorian lost some of its ferocity by the time it reached the North American mainland, the eastern seaboard was pummelled by powerful winds and heavy rain. North Carolina was the worst hit state with the US with the Outer Banks taking a battering from Dorian, even though it had weakened to a category 1 storm. A plane is turned upside down after Hurricane Dorian Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP Winds exceeding 75 mph, storm surges and flooding left a trail of destruction, particularly on Ocracoke Island, where 800 people were left stranded after they chose to sit out the storm. Roy Cooper, the state’s governor, said that 45,000 people were left without power and 200 people sought refuge in shelters. Dorian gathered strength again as it churned northward, hitting eastern Canada with renewed ferocity. The province of Nova Scotia was particularly badly hit as the wind brought down trees and power lines, leaving more than 450,000 homes without electricity. In the city of Halifax Dorian ripped roofs off apartment blocks and toppled a massive construction crane. There were also reports of flooding with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, saying some places had six inches of rain. Around 700 troops were used to help the authorities evacuate people living in flooded areas, restore electricity and clear roads.
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