'There was a town, but it was all gone.' MUSC photographer helps deliver supplies to devastated Bahamas

September 17, 2019
The Bahamas' beautiful blue water remains, but not much else in this view of Marsh Harbour. Photo by Brennan Wesley

Brennan Wesley’s first impression of the Bahamian town of Marsh Harbour was bleak.

“There’s nothing there,” he remembers of his view from a plane carrying relief supplies last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.

“I could see out of the window. There was a town, but it was all gone. It was just boards. There was an airport tower, but the structure next to it was gone. The hangars were gone. There was a runway and pine trees that were just snapped in half.”

Marsh Harbor airport after Hurricane Dorian
Wesley's view of the airport in Marsh Harbour. Photo by Brennan Wesley

Wesley, a photographer with the Medical University of South Carolina and an Army veteran, was there to help deliver 10,000 pairs of shoes from the Charleston-based fishing apparel company Huk and capture it all on film and video.

“They need shoes desperately because people are getting tetanus because of all the debris on the ground,” he says.

Huk shoes being loaded to deliver to the BahamasTen-thousand pairs of Huk shoes are loaded to ship to the Bahamas. Photo by Brennan Wesley

A friend asked Wesley to join the Sept. 9 mission, and the photographer didn’t hesitate once he got the OK to take off from work at MUSC. Saying "yes" to people in need is part of Wesley’s professional and personal code.

“We work in a hospital. That’s what we do. We don’t work in a bank or a whatever other profession. You’re around people who do this all the time. This should be your first nature —  'Yes, go.'”

Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas on Sept. 1 and didn’t leave for two days, causing at least 50 deaths. In Marsh Harbour, a town of about 6,000 in Abaco Islands, Bahamas, Dorian destroyed most of the homes.

Boxes of hurricane relief supplies in cargo planeHurricane relief supplies fill a cargo plane headed to the Bahamas, including shoes from a Charleston-based company. Photo by Brennan Wesley

Wesley’s journey there began in a Charleston warehouse, where he helped load the shoes onto two trucks. One went to Stuart, Florida, and the other to West Palm Beach. Both are departure points for Dorian relief supplies headed to the Bahamas. Wesley’s truck went to the airport in West Palm Beach.

“We left Charleston at 4:30 that afternoon and got to West Palm at 2:30 in the morning. We stayed at a hotel from 2:30 to 6. Then we got up, went to the airport, unloaded everything, and from 7 to about 8:30, we shrink-wrapped pallets of shoes.” Each pallet would go to a different area in the Bahamas based on need.

Photographer Brennan Wesley
Brennan Wesley in Marsh Harbour. Photo provided

They weren’t alone – other people were delivering supplies there, too. “Shoes, tools and ice. A certain amount of each product goes on each of these shipments. We were going to Marsh Harbour. They evacuated the whole island except for a few stragglers. So we needed shoes for the people coming in to do relief work if they were local. They also needed tools and tarps. Biggest thing they needed was ice. We had three 300-pound coolers of ice on the plane we flew in.”

Wesley says the plane was packed. He sat wedged in the back while the pilot got ready for takeoff. “He was on the runway going, ‘This is the heaviest this plane has ever been. I’ve never taken off with this much weight in this plane.’ And I’m like…” Wesley trails off with a smile.

Small plane dropping off supplies in BahamasUnloading shoes, ice and more in Marsh Harbour. Photo by Brennan Wesley

The plane took off safely, but the pilot’s challenges didn’t end there. “It’s a 45-minute flight from West Palm to Marsh Harbour,” Wesley says. “And there’s people who aren’t on radar so you have to keep your eyes out. All over the place. From the U.S. to the Bahamas, you have to file a flight plan, but people from island to island are just doing whatever. There are airplanes all over the place.”

When they finally got to Marsh Harbour, Wesley and another passenger jumped off to unload their cargo. It joined a big pile of donated goods. “There was a cinder block building, I guess where there used to be customs. Most of the stuff was stacked next to that.”

There were also body bags, Wesley says — a reminder of how devastating Dorian was.

Then his team got back on the plane. The pilot had deadlines to meet.

As a native Floridian who lived through Hurricane Andrew, and now a resident of Charleston, which sees its share of storms, Wesley tries to imagine what the people of the Bahamas endured.

“All the anxiety you feel going through a hurricane. Imagine if everything got wiped out and you stayed, where would you go to get water? Where would you go for help? You feel bad for people. It’s horrible. But people will rebuild. You can’t stop these things.”

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