Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm on Monday and Tuesday. As of Wednesday evening, at least 20 people had been confirmed dead and multiple neighborhoods lay destroyed in the storm's aftermath.
Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday to talk about the ongoing recovery efforts in the Bahamas.
"There's a very rigorous Caribbean and South American navy planning to get food and facilities, but I'm looking at these pictures of the island [size] and this is going to be a challenge," Kayyem said. "When you're on an island there's just nowhere to go, unlike New Orleans where you can evacuate people to Mississippi, Alabama and elsewhere."
Aid needs to be provided expeditiously to the country to prevent even more dire circumstances, Kayyem said.
"We're going to have a humanitarian crisis in the Bahamas within 72 hours unless they can get water and food there," she said.
Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
