ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman who rode out Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour in the Abaco Islands is happy to be alive after she watched her home and other buildings around crumble under the power of the historic storm.

  • Dawn Sands recovering in Orlando
  • Sands said some of her friends did not survive
  • More Hurricane Dorian stories

Dawn Sands rode out the Category 5 storm in her apartment. Initially, she hid inside her bathroom during the storm.

“I got really scared and knew something was going to happen,” said Sands. “The third time I opened the bathroom door to check the status my whole interior wall had blown out."

She then tried going to her landlord’s house.

“I climbed through the debris and I jumped down a hole," she explained. "Somehow when that house collapsed it took a coconut tree with it and I slide down the length of palm frond and had to let go in the end."

She made it to someone else’s laundry room and became trapped. That's where she was later rescued.

“They went back out in the storm and got all the supplies," Sands said. "They cleaned me up as best as they could.”

Her rescuers then made a makeshift stretcher to carry her out.

“They got me up on a piece of a broken shutter that fell off somebody’s house and walked what seemed like an eternity,” said Sands.

Finally, they made it another house and started calling for the U.S. Coast Guard. Eventually, the Coast Guard got their coordinates.

“So thankful to them,” said Sands.

She ended up on a chopper to Nassau and spent four nights in a hospital.

“My dad, stepmom, and sister made it out and reunited in Nassau,” said Sands.

Unfortunately, Sands later learned some of her friends didn’t make it through the storm.

“They found him day before yesterday, and that’s just one of many,” she explained, talking about a friend she'd lost.

Sands reiterated she's very thankful she’s alive, but she's also thinking about everyone still in the Bahamas.

“God bless them and their work ethic because they are at home trying to pick up pieces,” she said.

Sands flew into Orlando Sunday is staying with her friend, Lia Head Rigby. Rigby is the co-founder of the Headknowles Relief Foundation, a nonprofit helping in the Bahamas relief effort.