Uncertainty and relief as Dorian survivors escape on cruise to Florida

RIVIERA BEACH -- The Grand Celebration completed its maiden voyage to send Hurricane Dorian relief to The Bahamas on Saturday, bringing along about 1,100 Bahamian residents who escaped the storm's aftermath.

The Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line sent its ship with aid and supplies Thursday evening, days after Dorian rocked the country.

The cruise ship sailed in later than anticipated, which coupled with customs processing time, left relatives and loved ones to wait for the passengers.

But it was nothing compared to the days of silence, Mysline Jean, of Lake Worth Beach, and her family spent waiting to learn her brother was safe.

>>PREVIOUS: Bahamians desperate to leave as relief efforts gear up for Dorian-ravaged islands

Initially, Jean wasn't worried. Her brother Enoch was a security guard at a federal building in The Bahamas. They even spoke before the storm, when he promised her, "I'm gonna be at work, so I'm gonna be OK."

After three days, constant footage of the wreckage made Jean's family anxious. Finally, she heard from him in a string of messages via the international messaging app WhatsApp.

He wrote, "I've never seen anything like this before."

"I'm so stressed."

"I'm still here."

"Kids are drowning."

"It's mayhem out here."

Enoch was holed up in an island shelter, Jean said. His roof was gone. He'd lost his friends.

Jean knows if he stayed, he'd have to rebuild, and she'd "rather him be here with us."

So she arrived at the port at 7 a.m. "fresh off of work" at Jupiter Medical Center to wait for her brother.

Jean was prepared to douse Enoch in "all the warm hugs and kisses" a sister could give.

Doreen Campbell watched the ship pass Peanut Island and enter the port around 8:30 a.m. The Boynton Beach resident, also a Bahamian, was waiting for her aunt and cousins.

Most of her family is in The Bahamas, in Freeport and Nassau, she said. They survived, but she said her sister lost her house.

"I think she's going to come [here]," Campbell said.

She felt empathy for Bahamians who didn't have any family in the area.

"You've got to leave your country and come to another country and don't know what's going to happen," she said.

Some Bahamian residents who made the trek had family in the area, others didn't. Some still had yet to decide whether they would return to The Bahamas at all.

Renaeje Gardiner, 15, her mother, Sophia Morley and grandmother Lilian Morley came together. Gardiner said they didn't know who was picking them up from the port. Or where they would live.

They have to rebuild their lives.

Luckily, Gardiner said her best friend ended up on the same boat out of The Bahamas.

When she saw her pass by as they boarded, she smiled.

Gardiner said they'll look for a new school to finish the tenth grade at. Their moms will lean on each other as they look for jobs.

Niketha Hall was going to move to Canada next year with her husband William and two-month-old son Liam. Dorian changed those plans.

"It's a lot of people that lost a lot of stuff," she said of the storm.

The Grand Bahama resident wondered that with no running water or power, what was the point in waiting? Their suitcases were packed, one just for Liam's things.

"There's no reason to live there," Hall said. "I have a baby. I can't be in that situation."

Like many others, she learned about the ship's offer to take Bahamian residents to Florida through social media.

Gia Anderson, who also lived on Grand Bahama, planned to stay with family in Fort Lauderdale.

"Hopefully when things get better we'll go back home," she said.

Sandra and George Bennett waited out the storm in their Freeport home.

"Every home is gutted out," Sandra Bennett said of her neighborhood. "Completely gone."

Storm surge threatened them as they watched from the second floor, a side-effect of the storm that "caught us off-guard," Sandra said. A local resident with a boat brought them to drier land, she said.

George said he expects to return home soon, to meet with an insurance agent but also to return to work as a police officer.

"Everything is just not a clear vision right now," Sandra said. "Everything was so dramatic. We need to talk about our plans and regroup."

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