The pictures coming out of the Bahamas right now in the wake of Hurricane Dorian are truly frightening. Whole neighborhoods under water. Residents using boats and Jet Skis to rescue their neighbors. Apocalyptic destruction seemingly everywhere.
But some people are under the mistaken belief that the entire country was flattened by the storm. That’s not true.
Here’s a quick primer on the Bahamas and which parts of the country were affected by Hurricane Dorian.
It’s more than just a couple of islands
When you say you’re going down to the Bahamas, most people think of Grand Bahama, New Providence and Paradise islands. Probably because that’s where all the cruise ships go.
But the Bahamas are much more than that. It’s a chain of more than 700 islands that stretches hundreds of miles from the southern tip of Florida to down near Haiti.
Think of it this way: the distance from Grand Bahama (the northernmost island) to Great Inagua (the southernmost island) is about the same distance that San Francisco, California, is from San Diego.
So that’s why even though huge swaths of the northern Bahamas were decimated by Hurricane Dorian, other parts of the country are relatively OK.