U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its officers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last week coordinated the shipment of “hundreds of pounds” of apparel and “more than a dozen” generators to the Bahamas in support of the hurricane recovery effort there.
Slow-moving Hurricane Dorian, with sustained 185 mph winds, caused significant destruction to several Bahamian islands on Sept. 1-3.
The previously seized apparel, which was packed onto 10 pallets, included shirts, undergarments, hats and sunglasses, CBP said.
“Items that likely would have been forfeited, slated for auction or destroyed as part of a final disposition are now going to help those in need,” said Christopher Maston, CBP’s Miami International Airport port director, in an Oct. 2 press release.
CBP said the apparel and generators will be distributed by organizations working with recovery efforts in the Bahamas.
During Hurricane Dorian’s pass over the Caribbean and near Florida’s east coast, the 2,700 officers making up CBP’s Office of Field Operations in Florida were on standby with other federal agencies to assist with storm emergencies.
CBP’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircrews were sent to the Bahamas, where they airlifted more than 150 Bahamian and U.S. citizens to hospitals or local shelters in Nassau following Hurricane Dorian. In addition to transporting supplies, CBP estimated that it processed more than 4,000 evacuees from the Bahamas during the storm.