Amid fears of higher death toll, islanders vie to leave Bahamas

MARSH HARBOR, Bahamas - Bahamians scrambled to escape the islands hardest hit by Dorian, which has killed at least 43 people, while the storm wreaked "havoc" farther north in Canada after making landfall near Halifax on Saturday.

Even as some Bahamians began to reunite with their loved ones, the death toll - 35 so far in the Abaco Islands and eight in Grand Bahama - was likely to climb "significantly", according to Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis.

A loosely coordinated armada of passenger planes, helicopters and both private and government boats and ships, including redirected cruise liners, converged in the Bahamas on the horribly battered Abacos to help with evacuations, both to Nassau and to the US mainland.