Her parents' visit couldn't have come at a better time. Lindsay Braynen's mom and dad, Urmie and Michael Braynen, are in town this week on trip that was planned long before their home was hit by the second-strongest Atlantic Hurricane on record.
“You can call it luck, you can call it an act of god, I’m just glad they’re safe with me,” she told CTV News.
Category four Hurricane Dorian has turned deadly. At least five people are confirmed dead and dozens have been injured.
"We are in the midst of a historic tragedy in parts of northern Bahamas,” said the country's Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. “I ask for your prayers in those in affected areas and for our first responders."
Braynen’s family is from Nassau, the country’s capital, where her brother remains. “He’s fine,” she said, relieved. But being able to contact friends is another story.
“Some of them I’ve only heard from other persons that, yeah, their parents talked to them, like, 8 hours ago and they’re okay but they don’t have a roof anymore,” she said. Others she hasn’t heard from.
“I don’t want to think of those [people] I’ve come to know just being gone,” Braynen said.
Michael Braynen, Lindsay’s father, told CTV News “a storm of this size and intensity really has been unprecedented in the Bahamas.”
Their trip is another ten days, and the family will try to enjoy it, but it’s not easy.
“You wonder, 'Well, why am I here having fun on my vacation when other people are suffering so much,'” said Michael.
Lindsay's husband, Travaldo Farrington, has family who live on Great Abaco, one of the hardest hit areas in the country. Farrington said he’s heard from them but it's touch and go.
“This is the first time where it has actually be terrifying picking up my phone,” said Braynen.
The family told CTV News they are no strangers to hurricanes living in The Bahamas, but this one has taken them all by surprise. They asked those who wish to help to donate to the Bahamas Red Cross or HeadKnowles, a local organization that came together on Facebook specifically to provide hurricane relief.
