Pictures the reporters gathered and talked to people on the ground, we want to and will proceed cautiously because families in the bahamas, in the United States and around the world with loved ones on the island are reading every clip and watching for some sign of the people they have not heard from in days and many people have not been heard from. It is a horrible reality in times like these when phone lines are down and roads are impassable and governments are overwhelmed so with that, our first report cnn patrick has spent the day in high rock on the Southern Side of grand bahama island, one of the hardest hit before today we had not seen. Reporter reaching the hardest hit areas of grand bahama island means driving through still flooded streets and streets that are no longer streets. This area in the east of the island has until now been unaccessible until the storm. Little to no help has arrived. The force of the hurricane through cars, through buildings. The storm stalled out here, the category five leveling whole towns. Many rode out the storm in their homes, many did not survive. Pastor joey sanders was on the third floor of his home with his son when the storm surge crashed in. Started to make to the second floor of the house and been there for ten minutes and after the third floor, you know, the floor up to our head and the strong current trying to break loose everything. Reporter this was in the middle of the night . About 1 30 in the morning. And then the current was so strong, then the roof started to lift and thats when i remember i was underneath the water and my son standing, i noticed he had a search light and disappeared with the search light and i heard him screaming daddy, daddy, daddy. Reporter he was in the water at that point . He was gone. Minutes later when i came from underneath the water, i caught on and roof carried me away. 600 feet away from each other for over two days and caught into the pine tree with 32 feet high. Reporter so the water carried you into a pine tree in the middle of the night and your son was aways away from you. What was going through your mind you must have been terrified. Yes, i was hoping he was alive and he thought i had died, also. Wasnt until the two days later that we saw one he was under the trailer there and thats when we saw one. Reporter the bahama government warned people the death count would spike. In places like high rock where everyone knows of dead and missing family and neighbors that news is no surprise. Even though this is one of the hardest hit areas, help from the government is yet to arrive. The government is on its way. It will take a better time for other settlements but they are doing their thing gradually, you know. Reporter do you wish they were moving quicker . Yes, i wish they were moving quicker. Reporter people desperately need food and water before time runs out. A lot of people have lost most of their clothes, water, need food, stuff like that, basic stuff right now. Patrick joins us now. Patrick, i mean, its just a harrowing account. What else are you seeing and what more are people telling you just in terms of the response they are seeing . I mean, have people are there is there a big response on the ground now or is it still are people still waiting . Reporter people are still waiting is the answer. Fr fre freeport is getting help now. There is a sense of some return to normalcy here. Even though we still dont have water or power, there is a sense of that at least food is coming in and help is coming in but the hardest hit areas are not getting help. Thats the irony of this. You drive an hour through this debris field to this town that was impassible because of the water on the road and like the hurricane just hit. Its a week ago the hurricane began hit thing area and nothing really has happened there and, you know, the Little Things that you notice, the families that have come from other parts of the bahamas to look for family members in places like high rock. They have gone themselves to see if they can find their own family members and talked to several of them and most of them had been unable to find anybody and usually dont recognize the neighborhoods because they have been completely changed by the storm. I remember today i gave somebody a bottled water, which is precious for us but somebody asks you for water, how do you say no . I noticed this person took a little sip dying of thirst. They took a sip because they knew they had to make it last. Just in terms of recovery of people accounting for people, its hard for us who are not there, we hear from an official hundreds of thousands of people are still missing, is it apparent when youre on the ground that there are, that there are people who have died, who have not been collected or i mean, what are you seeing on the ground . Its hard to get a sense. Reporter so it is. There is a big gulf between what the government says and the government just is for whatever reason, the resources have not come into this part of the bahamas as perhaps they have the abacos and its a big disaster and they are strapped. I get that. Were mainly seeing u. S. Coast guard presence. When you go around places like high rock and Everybody Knows everybody in these towns and they will tell you who is missing, who is dead and the numbers dont add up with numbers the government is giving us and then today when we were watching coast guard chopper go around in the area, the woods were we were, the residents said that the because there say body back there and they spotted it. That is still going on a couple days ago we were hoping that people could be recovered. I think that hope is no more. People couldnt have lived in these conditions so i talked to that preacher and he spent 40 hours in a tree and had to rescue himself and drive his son in for a medical condition. They never got help along the way so i think it is unfortunately at this point a recovery operation, and the numbers so far the government have released are very different from the sense you get on the ground when people tell you about missing and talk to you about the family and this house here swept away and we know they couldnt have made it and then you drive to certain areas and the stench is overwhelming and maybe thats animals thats been killed. We dont know but these areas, a week after the storm hit look pretty much the same and no one has seen any major government precedence any major government assistance. They are still waiting. Patrick, appreciate it. Thank you. A few hours ago, the Prime Minister of the bahamas thanked the u. S. For support saying there is still a quote long road ahead of us. The u. S. Coast guard and other medical personnel have been arriving to help with the search and rescue mission. Gary tuchman is with one group on the hard hit abaco islands today. Reporter were in a section called mud and peas described as a largely haitian community. Ive been covering hurricanes for about 37 years now. Ive this. We are accompanying the u. S. Coast guard. You can see them over here. This gives you an idea of why its impossible to have a firm death toll. These coast guardsmen are about to go in this home to see if there is this cameras, the wide spread dessimation here. People are shell shocked. They dont know what to do. We saw more than 200 meal lined up. Were talking about utter devastation. I dont know about a goal. Disaster, i lost everything. Reporter the reason they are in this line, more than 200 people with all their belongings is everyone had their house destroyed and hope to get a ship or boat. This gentleman here is telling them now this ship and ill give you a look at the ship to the left, the ship that delivered would talk them to nassau. Very happy about that. Let me give you an idea what they are going through. What were you just told . Will you be able to get on this boat and leave . Yes, sir. You must be excited. Definitely. What happened to your home . Roof blowing off. I can tell you they were grateful. They will be able to board this freighter and had to nassau and take it from there but there is absolute desperation here. There is gary tuchman reporting joined by a member of the parliament in the bahamas and the responsibility and ministry of public works. Mr. Lewis, i appreciate you joining us. The Prime Minister today said hes satisfied with the speed of the governments response. Are you . The government is doing everything they can. Appreciate you having me. We are pleased with the speed that we are moving with and our speed has been aided by the fact that we have a partnership going on with the United States and neighbors so we have helped and that is making a major difference right now because it is much needed. Ive seen members of the u. S. Ars force and spoken and seen them as an Advisory Team under ground. Were happy that help is not only underway, help is here and the Prime Minister is right in this proclamation that we are moving as fast as we can and with the help of the United States and our neighboring partner partners. I understand your difficulties with the lack of resources to search. There is a lot of people that we have talked to that are reporters have talked to on the ground saying they wish they saw more of a government presence in the grand bahamas and abaco islands searching for the dead. You know, five days on or four days on right now the death toll still stands at 30, obviously officials have said its likely to grow but does the government have any actual sense of how many people have perished, of how many are still missing or is it still unknown . It is still unknown. The police force is located downtown. Most of the vehicles owned by the police force has been pretty much destroyed so were relying on outside transportation to come in to assist us. We took Defense Force rangers out to east end grand bahamas this evening but for us to get there, we have to take heavy equipment through to make it drivable to get to those areas. Part of the challenges that we have limited transportation. And the resources being done go ahead. Im sorry, do you know how many search and rescue personnel are whether from the u. S. Or i talked to the crime minister yesterday and said its a team of 50 plus. Do you have a sense how many search and rescue people there are actually on the ground doing searches . The number in grand bahama has grown. As well as the u. S. Coast guard sending in another fleet tomorrow. So again, we have more than 50 right now. The numbers are certainly inflated since then and its going to make a major difference. Search, air search and rescue right now, we try to access them with the areas by boat and the floor. So that is restrictive. The best way to get to most of the restricted areas will be by air and again, most of our aircrafts has been demobilized. We are happy to say the airport itself is examined by the colonial from the United States air force doing seismic test and confirm the runway is stable and the area is a good staging point. So even when the u. S. Air force comes in, ive seen two of the helicopters on the island today doing air patrol so tomorrow well be able to get a good understanding of numbers that they would have been able to rescue and also we can give an official count of the people in the bahamas and world what numbers we have. We can confirm who is no longer with us. Ive been told by one person at times coast guard at least in one incidence, a coast guard held cop tomorrow had to wait for a long time to take off and had to wait in line for everybody else. Is there a problem at all with sort of, you know, red tape of the normal rules that one would go through whether its customs forms that you have to fill out or flight plans that youre supposed to file. Is that getting in the way at all of the speed of the response at all . As it is now. The department is located in nassau. The air control tower in free port and were relying on command from nassau. Yesterday for instance, we had to close down at 6 00 because night was falling and we wanted to get the planes on the ground out. With respect to customs clearings. There is an order that was made. The form is simple. Persons who are areceiving good its a simple list. There are boxes to check. What is the destination . Where is medical sup pipes, tents, mosquito netting. The ornl persnly person bringin would bring the freight and most of it is free of charge. The process is very clear. Its very easy. There is there was some confusion initially but no blockade. Were smooth sailing and people leaving the airpor are happy of course there is the harbor because of the highway is limited. The person getting in have given products. Iram lewis. Appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Thank you. Im very appreciative of the fact. I want to say thank you to florida and i want to let you know that my hometown on the north side of grand bahama i have not been able to go to yet. I dont know what the condition of our home is. Right now we are holding our breath but i am expecting the worst. Hoping for the best. Once again, thank you very much. Yeah, well, well keep in touch with you. Thank you very much. While cleanup and search and rescue missions commence. The president continues his weeklong fight over a mistake about a hurricane tweet its ridiculous. Well not dwell on this. Mexico wont pay for the wall but the children of the men and women and Armed Forces Just may. Well explain that ahead. We will build the wall. 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Maggie, i want to talk big picture in a minute and i dont want to talk much about or even say the word sharpie, which i just said but i know you have new reporting about who actually used that sharpie to draw that fake line on that map. It was the president. It came out of a meeting he had been having with fema officials earlier in either in the dining room off the oval office or in the oval office itself and having a conversation and drew on it and was the map he used but as with all things related to this, he ends up just unable to say yeah, i did it and i was doing it in the context of x, y, z. He doesnt know how it got there the samy he continued to insist he was right about where the storm forecast was on sunday as opposed to where it was days earlier. Right. I mean, i feel like you and i have had this conversation so many times yet again, its a meaningless lie that didnt have to be lied about. The fact that he continues to talk about this on this day, i mean, it just yeah. Weird. Weve seen him do a version of this anderson over and. [ overlapping speakers ] t over and over over the last five years trying to back fill his claims for the inauguration. That was not an event that had consequences in terms of what he was talking about whereas this one when you talk about a storms path that impacts many, many people. It impacts whether people evacuated and have trust what the government says. This one is different. He tends to do this when he is incredibly stressed or anxious whatever is in front of him and burroughs down and obsesses on narrow thing that his aids dont totally understand and many of them have described feeling helpless over time to avoid help him deal with this or move him past this and he just clearly isnt going to let go of it and as you watch images of people whose homes are gone, its hard to reconcile. Is it clear to you how much of the president s time or, you know, energy or thought process you cant read his thoughts but thought process goes into this sharpie thing, alabama, the map issue, these rabbit holes he goes down. I mean, there is a lot of executive time i know and he spends a lot of time watching cable news and stuff and i assume there is a lot of people running around the white house trying to go down the rabbit holes with him and, you know, noah came out with a Statement Today justifying what the president said. Is this a big time suck for him . It is. I mean, look, this as i said, he tends to burro and obsess on something very narrow that he tries to control, really narrow that he tries to control when there is all sorts of other chaos around him in this case its the chaos and uncertainty around his own reelection and economy and a couple of other factors hes f