FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Late Sunday, volunteers loaded emergency supplies onto a plane destined for the Bahamas.
Tropic Ocean Airways employees gathered food, bottled water, diapers, paper towels and bathroom supplies for survivors of Hurricane Joaquin.
The company is running flights to some of the hardest hit areas over the coming week.
"All day yesterday, we started talking to people on the ground there who were telling us that entire families were wiped out," Tropic Ocean Airways CEO Rob Ceravolo told Local 10 News.
But getting the supplies to parts of the Bahamas might prove difficult. Pictures show the damage at San Salvador Airport, southeast of Cat Island. The airport has daily flights to and-from Nassau, including Spirit Airlines.
"We actually launched two seaplanes," Ceravolo said.
A U.S. Coast Guard crew based in Miami boarded a plane Sunday to get a good look at the damage from high above.
The storm's 100-plus mph winds blew the roof off homes. Parts of Crooked Island, Acklins and Long Island are underwater. The lack of clean drinking water on the islands has the Bahamian government working around the clock to get crews on the ground.
Hurricane Joaquin battered the Bahamas for more than two days. At one point, the storm packed Category 4 winds north of 130 mph with 20-40-feet seas.
Saturday's front page of the Nassau guardian newspaper put the damage in a single word: Devastated.
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