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Tentative list of the missing in Bahamas has 2,500 names

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Bahamian police and members of a recovery team remove a victim in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas on September 10, 2019, one week after Hurricane Dorian. - Bahamas authorities have updated the death toll from Hurricane Dorian to 50 with the number expected to climb, local media reported, as thousands are evacuated from the archipelago's hardest-hit islands. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)

FREEPORT, Bahamas — An estimated 2,500 people are listed as missing in the Bahamas in Hurricane Dorian’s aftermath, the government said Wednesday. But it cautioned that the names have yet to be checked against the rosters of people evacuated from the devastated islands or staying in shelters.

Carl Smith, a spokesman for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency, said he expects the list to shrink as it is checked.

More than a week after Dorian smashed thousands of homes on the country’s Grand Bahama and Abaco islands, the death toll stood at 50 and was expected to rise, with search-and-rescue crews still making their way through the ruins.

While power has returned to much of Grand Bahama, Smith said the electrical infrastructure around Marsh Harbour, Abaco’s largest city, was destroyed.