RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. – — The Port of Palm Beach reopened Wednesday morning after Hurricane Dorian luckily, stayed off the Florida Coast.
Two cargo vessels arrived back to the port Wednesday following the storm, but emotions have been running high.
“This is the worst nightmare ever,” said Tina Dias, who is anxiously awaiting word her customers and friends are safe in the Bahamas. “I want to hear somebody’s voice, I want to hear somebody’s voice from over there.”
Tina is the Vice President of Heavy Lift Services, a stevedore company based at the Port of Palm Beach, which has been shipping cargo into Marsh Harbour every week for the past 14 years.
Now, a large number of supplies are sitting inside the warehouse, leaving Heavy Lift Services in a holding pattern. Tina says her long-time customers are more like family members, but she hasn’t been able to communicate with anyone on the island.
“The destruction that we see, we’re hearing it’s 80-percent gone, and to have been there to know these people and to feel like their our family is heartbreaking,” she said.
Sailing from the Port to the Bahamas has been cancelled Thursday. The Port’s executive director says its a waiting game regarding the days ahead.
“All of that depends on the conditions at Grand Bahama port in Freeport, which by all accounts it really got clobbered,” said Manuel Almira, executive director of the Port of Palm Beach.
Meantime, Tina has been fielding calls from people wanting to help with the relief effort.
“We have two employees that are Bahamian and it’s been heart wrenching to watch them go through this knowing that their entire families are there and they couldn’t speak to them,” she said.
