Families of people stranded on the Caribbean island of Dominica were desperate Thursday for any scrap of information about their loved ones after deadly Hurricane Maria ravaged the region.
The monster storm, which killed at least 17 people across the Caribbean, cut off cellphone service on much of the island — leaving families without a way of finding out what was happening on the ground.
For some, the anguish of waiting to hear from their relatives was becoming too much to bear.
Amy Turner from Austin, Texas, has been looking for her 40-year-old brother, Ben, since Monday night.
Ben co-owns a so-called eco-lodge on the east coast of Dominica, having moved to the island from New York about a month ago.
Amy Turner said she last heard from her brother at 6:30 p.m. Monday night. He was in a shelter with a few other people just up the hill from the lodge, she said.
“I am worried that they are trapped because they are at a dead end of a very remote road,” Turner told NBC News. “I feel helpless … The lack of communication and information these past few days has been so hard.”
Nick Cooper’s father, Patrick, said he was relieved to finally find out his 26-year-old son was OK and was being evacuated to a nearby island.
Cooper, who is from Atlanta, is a fourth-year medical student at Ross University located in the town of Portsmouth on the northwest of Dominica.
University officials said Wednesday that more than 1,400 of its students and faculty were accounted for and would be evacuated by boat to St. Lucia to the south.
Patrick Cooper said he has not heard from his son since the hurricane hit Monday night, but on Wednesday, he finally found out his son checked in with the university staff and was fine.
“When you watch in horror as a vicious, brutal storm barrels over an island, it’s hard not to be panicked,” Cooper said. “So many things could happen, so you just want assurances your loved one is alright.”
Cooper said he spent two sleepless nights trying to look for any information on what’s happening in Dominica, but the information had been hard to come by.
“The lack of information is maddening,” he said. “My heart weeps for all the parents and family members who were waiting and still have not heard.”
A U.S.-based spokeswoman for the Rosalie Bay Resort, which is located on the east coast of Dominica, said it had lost contact with staff late Monday.
The last message from a manager, which arrived about 45 minutes after Maria made landfall, said the situation was “really bad and very scary.”
There has still been no communication with the resort staff.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said Thursday that the death toll in Dominica had reached more than 15 as a result of the storm.
Hartley Henry, a top adviser to Skerrit, said there was a “tremendous loss” of housing and public buildings, while the general hospital also “took a beating.”
Video footage shot by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency showed large swaths of the island suffered heavy damage, with roofs missing and debris scattered for hundreds of yards.
Henry added the country was “in a daze” with no electricity, running water or cellphone service.
Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm early Wednesday. It moved past the northeastern Dominican Republic on Thursday and was on track for the British overseas territory of Turks and Caicos.