FREEPORT, Bahamas (WHDH) — A Bahamian man’s wife drowned in front of his eyes after water gushed into their home during Hurricane Dorian.
Howard Armstrong recalled the heartbreaking moment when his wife passed away, adding that he is lucky to still be alive.
“My poor little wife got hypothermia and she was standing on top of the kitchen cabinets until they disintegrated and then she just drowned on me,” he said.
Armstrong remembered his wife’s last words to him: “I’m not gonna—I think I’m going to die.”
“I said, ‘no you’re not.’ And that was it. She took a little mouthful of water and that was it,” he continued. “It was just so quick. It was so quick. I didn’t believe it had happened. It was horrible.”
Armstrong, who is a crab fisherman, knew at that point he needed to get out of the home.
He managed to escape, despite not having the right tools to cut a hole in his roof, and swam to a mooring after noticing his boat was still there.
Armstrong took his boat to his neighbor’s house, where he had heard screaming coming from inside.
“They were shouting to me because I put a light on this morning and she, I heard somebody call me and I say, ‘I’ll get over there when it gets light.’ And I got over there, she was already, she’s dead,” he said.
Armstrong told the reporter that he planned on heading to a shelter to get some food.
He added that he wants to eventually recover his wife’s remains.
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