Cohasset families shelter Bahamian man whose family was devastated by Dorian

COHASSET, Mass. — Loppy Munnings, 23, can't believe what's happened to his hometown on the island of Grand Bahama.

"I was glued to the TV for hours and hours and hours," he told Boston 25 News in a sit-down interview. "I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat."

Hurricane Dorian wiped out much of the island and much of his family.

His 6-year-old nephew, a brother, an aunt, many cousins and his mother all died in the storm.

"My heart cries. My heart cries that I grew up there, had so many memories there, now it’s completely gone," Munnings said. "My mom. She's just my everything. I just hope that I made her proud in 23 years I've been living."

Munnings has been working as a dive master and recently took a job on a yacht as crew to help save for college. He was in Maine when the hurricane leveled Great Abaco Island and Grand Bahama Island.

Since then, he's been in Cohasset staying with the Desisto and Buffum families, who he met several years ago while diving in Grand Bahama. They've set up a GoFundMe page that will go towards Munnings' eventual college tuition.

"The page on GoFundMe is entitled Love for Loppy, which we think is appropriate. Our goal is to raise $20,000 because that is what it takes to get a student visa," Laura Desisto said. "You have to prove you have that much money to even stay here."

Many of Munnings' relatives and friends remain missing. His father barely survived the hurricane and Munnings finally spoke with him by phone for the first time on Monday.

"He has the same set of clothes he's had on for the past week. He has no shoes, [he] barely has food," Munnings said of his father.

He says he plans on leaving Cohasset in the next two or three days and return home to Grand Bahama, but because the airport near his home is inaccessible right now, he will have to take a boat from Fort Lauderdale.

Cox Media Group