After Dorian, Bahamian family finds refuge in Palm Harbor

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - After Hurricane Dorian, thousands of families who lived on Abaco Island were forced to relocate.

Some came to the United States and have begun making their new lives. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, about 4,000 evacuees have been processed in the past month.

Vashti Joseph and her family are among them. Vashti worked for a family from Palm Harbor in the Bahamas. When they heard she and her family fled Abaco, they offered her their winter home in Palm Harbor.

"The strength that I had during Dorian, that's the strength that I'm using now," Vashti Joseph said.

Despite her good fortune, the move has been difficult for her and her two daughters, ages 4 and 9.

The girls are being enrolled in school and, as neighbors learn about what she's gone through, they have begun rallying around her, helping any way that they can.

"I think, 'How can you not want to help someone who's so grateful?' and she has such a humble spirit, and I just fell in love with her," said Pamela Writtenhouse-Enos, a neighbor who has helped Joseph navigate her new life in the U.S.

Joseph says her visa will only allow her to stay for six months. In the meantime, she's trying to decompress from the stress she endured during the hurricane.

"It is very traumatizing," she said.