As Hurricane Dorian moves off Bahamas, Central Florida mobilizes relief effort for devastated islands

Sep. 3--Even before Dorian's winds and rain had lashed Central Florida on Tuesday, Jaylyn June Moogan started rounding up generators, chainsaws, tarps, batteries and toilet paper for the Bahamas, where the hurricane had delivered a devastating blow.

"When I saw what was happening, I said, 'We've got to do something,'" said Moogan, 28, who grew up in Windermere but has spent 25 years taking trips to the islands, where her family has a home. "It's so scary. A lot of our friends ... their houses are basically makeshift. We don't know yet whether they're safe."

Moogan posted an appeal on Facebook on Monday, which was then shared by over 100 friends -- and a few strangers. Within 24 hours, she raised $15,000, and her father was making plans to fly a private plane to the islands as soon as conditions allowed.

Dorian pounded the islands for a day and a half, devastating thousands of homes, trapping people in attics and crippling hospitals. At least five deaths were reported, with the full extent of the damage far from clear.

The United Nations and the International Red Cross are mobilizing to deal with the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of the most powerful hurricane on record ever to hit the Bahamas. The Grand Bahama airport was under 6 feet of water.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Walt Disney Company, led by Disney Cruise Line, announced it was committing more than $1 million in cash and in-kind support to the relief efforts on the islands.

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Though experts generally caution donors to give only to established charities, many Central Floridians with family, friends or property in the Bahamas decided that 36 hours of watching the hurricane's swirling mass pummeling the islands left them no choice but to act.

"We just want to do what we can to help," said John Babinchak of Winter Park, whose wife, Wendy, is from the Bahamas and still has extended family there. "Our son's godmother -- she's 84, and we don't know what's going on with her. ... The anxiety I'm seeing from friends and relatives here is hard."

Babinchak was supporting the HeadKnowles Emergency Funds, a private, volunteer-run group that reports it raised more than $4 million for Hurricane Matthew recovery on the islands. By midday Tuesday, it already had drawn donations of over $250,000 for Dorian relief efforts on its GoFundMe page and had a plane en route to the islands.

Denise Strube of Windermere said she too hoped to be on a plane with aid to the Bahamas -- once it was practical to do so.

"We have a lot of friends, dear friends, there we haven't heard from," said Strube, whose family owns two condominiums and a boat there. "Unfortunately, communication is sketchy on a good day, so right now, we're just getting together the supplies we can. Our main thing is going to be to try to help in our area [of Treasure Cay]."

Meanwhile, Orlando real estate broker Susan Morris, who owns a home in Marsh Harbour on the Abaco Islands, started pulling together a network of colleagues, many of whom also have connections to the Islands, to assemble relief packages.

"We all have been so worried about our Bahamian friends because they don't leave," she said. "We can't reach anyone. "When [Hurricane] Floyd hit, and when [Hurricane] Jeanne hit, we put together 100 packages to send down there, and we're doing that again. ... I've probably had 50 friends who have never even been to the Bahamas call me and donate $100."

Each package will contain a cloth grocery bag full of essential items and toiletries: toothpaste and toothbrushes, ibuprofen, reading glasses, rubbing alcohol, work gloves, shampoo, baby formula and tampons. (To donate, contact SMorrisRDIP@gmail.com or VarneyME1@aol.com.)

OneBlood, the local not-for-profit blood center serving much of the Southeast, also announced Tuesday it stood ready to send blood to the Bahamas if needed. It was encouraging all eligible blood donors to give and said the majority of its centers remained operational as Dorian moves past Florida -- except those directly on Florida's east coast.

-- Hurricane Dorian News

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A complete listing of donor centers and mobile drives can be found at www.oneblood.org.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ksantich@orlandosentinel.com

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