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Carnival Cruise Ship Out of Port Canaveral will Deliver Food, Water to the Bahamas by Thursday

Overhead view of a row of damaged structures in the Bahamas from a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Stanton. Photo: NPR News
U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area
Overhead view of a row of damaged structures in the Bahamas from a Coast Guard Elizabeth City C-130 aircraft after Hurricane Dorian shifts north Sept. 3, 2019. Hurricane Dorian made landfall Saturday and intensified into Sunday. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Stanton.

A Carnival cruise shipped out today with much-needed supplies to the Bahamas. 

Senior Vice President of Nautical and Port Operations for Carnival Cruise Line Terry Thornton says the Carnival Liberty is on her way to the Bahamas. 

He says the ship will dock in Freeport later this week where it will deliver 40 pallets of water and food.

“She has freshwater. She has nonperishable food. She has a few generators. There was a whole laundry list of different things that the government had requested that are in some of the pallets that we are distributing.”

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But Thornton says one of their first priorities is restarting normal cruises, which help the local economy.

“We can come back sooner than their land-based tourism will be able to recover. So the hotels will need to be rebuilt that takes time and materials and supplies and all those kinds of things. But we can come back much quicker than their hotel inventories and their hotel tourism can come back. And we take that commitment very seriously and we’ll be back as quick as we can.”

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He says the company is also working with Tropical Shipping out of West Palm Beach to ship materials daily to the island nation.
If you'd like to listen to the story, please click on the clips above.

Danielle Prieur is WMFE's education reporter.