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Frankie Fleuridor, an activist who works with the Haitian community in Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco was worried that not everybody would be able to leave. “Some people are saying that they’re not going to go because they have nowhere to go,” he said on Saturday.

“It’s tough for people in the shantytowns,” he said. Their plywood houses are not built to withstand hurricane-force winds and are vulnerable to flooding. He said that he had rented hotel rooms for the most vulnerable, but could not afford to do more. “I’m maxed out,” he said.

Mr. Minnis, the prime minister, warned residents of the most vulnerable regions on Friday to move to higher ground, but The Nassau Guardian reported on Saturday that some residents on Sweeting Cay, a fishing village on the eastern side of Grand Bahama Island, were stranded and calling for help.

Mr. Pintard, the agriculture minister, crisscrossed Grand Bahama Island on Saturday in a last-minute effort to help to residents. Many homes are still damaged from Hurricane Matthew, which hit the island two years ago. He brought a team of workers to nail plywood on roofs, windows and doors.

He said he was concerned that many of the damaged homes would face “tremendous rain downpour and hurricane-force winds,” and that there was a shortage of both labor and plywood to prepare.

The storm’s slow pace and the low-lying islands’ vulnerability to flooding added to those concerns.

Thousands of people were at risk of losing their homes — which is their “life’s investment,” he said, adding that “catastrophic damage” would close businesses and eliminate jobs, “which we are ill prepared for.”