CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cleveland company is helping to deliver supplies and rescue injured victims of the brutal Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

Rich Newenhisen of Aitheras Aviation Group, based at Burke Lakefront Airport, says his company sent the first civilian rescue airplane Tuesday to Treasure Cay, Bahamas. Aitheras sent a second plane Wednesday and was sending a third Thursday, along with medical teams, bringing total personnel there to about 20.

Dorian hit the Bahamas Sunday through Tuesday and reached category 5 status, the roughest, with winds up to 185 miles per hour and more than 24 inches of rain. At last report, Dorian had killed at least 20 people in the Bahamas.

Search and rescue teams, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the British Royal Navy, were searching for survivors, and thousands were reported missing, The Washington Post reported.

“There’s a lot of structural damage,” said Newenhisen, Aitheras’ director of operations, told The Plain Dealer. “Roads are impassible.”

It’s hard for survivors to reach Treasure Cay’s airport, but many have reached it and are waiting to be flown out for treatments.

Dorian was working its way up the U.S. Southeast coast toward North Carolina on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Aitheras was flying injured victims to hospitals in Nassau, Bahamas, which Dorian relatively spared, and brought medical supplies donated by Florida hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic in Weston.

In 2017, Aitheras helped rescue victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and Hurricane Irma in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Aitheras and a sister company, AcuteAir Ambulance of Fort Lauderdale, have set up a gofundme account for tax-deductible donations to the Icarus Foundation to support company efforts in the Bahamas. The fund’s initial goal is $10,600. See gofundme.com/f/acuteair039s-campaign-for-icarus-foundation.

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