LGBTI activists in the Bahamas have joined efforts to help victims of Hurricane Dorian in their country.

Alexus D’Marco, executive director of the D’Marco Organization, on Friday told the Washington Blade her organization is providing support to people who are now living in shelters in the Bahamian capital of Nassau and assessing the specific needs they may have. D’Marco and her colleagues are also tracking missing people and reporting them to Bahamas’ National Emergency Management Agency.

D’Marco, who is also the executive director of the Bahamas Organization of LGBTI Affairs, noted the Rustin Fund for Global Equality and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition have created a Dorian relief fund.

“CVC has teamed up with the Rustin Fund to get rapid and urgent assistance to our LGBT brothers and sisters in the Bahamas,” reads the fund’s website. “This is a direct lifeline of support managed by CVC through LGBT groups in the Bahamas ensuring emergency funds reach them quickly.”

D’Marco said she and her colleagues are “trying to be here for the long haul.”

“We’re trying to raise funds for adequate shelter to put displaced persons of the LGBTI community, or the vulnerable population,” D’Marco told the Blade from Nassau during a WhatsApp interview. “So, we’re not just focusing in and zeroing in on key populations, but also the elderly, LGBTI persons who have families that are affected.”

Dorian had 185 mph winds when it made landfall in the Abaco Islands on Sept. 2. The Category 5 hurricane remained over Grand Bahama Island for more than 24 hours before it moved away from the Bahamas on Sept. 4. Read more via Washington Blade