Dorian strikes with record fury
Hurricane hammers Bahamas, US states launch evacuations
The US states of Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina were all braced for Hurricane Dorian after it struck the northern Bahamas yesterday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, its record 297km/h winds ripping off roofs, overturning cars and tearing down powerlines as hundreds hunkered down in schools, churches and shelters.
Dorian slammed into Elbow Cay in Abaco island, and then made a second landfall near Marsh Harbour after authorities made last-minute pleas for those in low-lying areas to evacuate.
“It’s devastating,” said Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. “There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure. Luckily, no loss of life reported.”
The hurricane was approaching the eastern end of Grand Bahama island last night, forecasters said.
With its maximum sustained winds of 297km/h and gusts up to 354km/h, Dorian tied the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to come ashore, equalling the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before the storms were named.
There were indications that the slow-moving Dorian would veer sharply northeastward after passing the Bahamas and track up the US Southeast seaboard. But authorities warned that even if its core did not make US landfall, the potent storm would likely hammer the coast with powerful winds and heavy surf.
The five US states likely to be most affected had all declared states of emergency.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered a mandatory evacuation of the entire coast of the state amid Dorian’s threat. The order, which covers about 830,000 people, goes into effect today. Georgia’s Governor, Brian Kemp, later ordered mandatory evacuations of that state’s Atlantic coast. Authorities in Florida also ordered mandatory evacuations in some vulnerable coastal areas.
More than 600 Labor Day flights in the US had been canceled as of yesterday, many of them in Florida as Dorian barrelled toward the state’s coast. The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 305km/h winds. That storm did not make landfall at that strength.
“Catastrophic conditions” were reported in Abaco, with a storm surge of 5.5m to 7m, and Dorian was expected to cross Grand Bahama later in the day “with all its fury”, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
In the northern stretches of the archipelago, hotels closed, residents boarded up homes and hired boats moved people to bigger islands.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned that anyone who did not evacuate was “in extreme danger”.