Dorian ravages Bahamas with 220 mph wind gusts
Hurricane Dorian, one of the most powerful Atlantic storm sin modern history, plowed into the Bahamas on Sunday with winds equivalent of an E4 tornado, causing catastrophic damage on its slow churn toward the East Coast.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Florida and South Carolina will begin mandatory evacuations today as the Category 5 hurricane creeps closer with 185 mph sustained winds and gusts of over 220 mph. The National Hurricane Center forecasts it will grind along Florida' s east coast on Tuesday and Wednesday before skirting Georgia and the Carolinas.
But the path's uncertainty still leaves the possibility of a direct landfall hit, anywhere from southern Florida to North Carolina's Outer Banks as late as Thursday.
“Even the track that keeps it off the coast – it ain't like it's 100 miles off the coast – it's about 25 miles off the coast in some areas,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “So that's way too close for comfort, even if that were gospel.”
The U.S. mainland could avoid hurricane-strength winds if Dorian remains offshore, but at least tropical storm-force winds and damaging storm surge are likely along hundreds of miles of shore. The hurricane center said Dorian should experience some fluctuations in intensity and should weaken gradually as it nears Florida.
Hurricane experts are confident Dorian will make a turn to the north late Monday into Tuesday, but Florida's fate is tied to how close the behemoth creeps to the coast before that. Just tens of miles will make the difference between damaging hurricane force gus ts punching into coastal cities or a less troublesome tropical storm.
South Carolina's governor ordered a mandatory evacuation of the entire coast, effect at noon Monday, when state troopers will begin reversing lanes so that people can all head inland on major coastal highways. The order affects about 830,000 people.
Evacuations also are underway in coastal Florida areas of Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Brevard, Indian River, Volusia and St. Johns counties.
Nearly 149,000 people in the St. Augustine area are ordered to evacuate Monday morning.
“We have every reason to believe the impacts to the city will be substantially similar to what we've seen with Ir ma and Matthew ,” Mayor Tracy Upchurch said. “Therefore it is very important our residents take that into consideration. We're as prepared as we can be.”
Dorian is one of only seven named Atlantic hurricanes with wind speeds of 180 mph or more, and is second only to Hurricane Allen' s 190 mph winds in 1980. At 910 millibars Sunday, Dorian's pressure was lower than Hurricane Andrew, which was the most destructive hurricane ever to hit Florida nearly 30 years ago. The only hurricane rivaling the power of Dorian is the 1935 Labor Day storm t hat devastated the Keys.
Hurricane Dorian made land fall at 12:40 p.m. EDT in Elbow Cay of the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas, as the most powerful storm on record to hit the low-lying islands. Little news came out of the islands as of Sunday afternoon, but video posted on social media showed ferocious winds, blinding rain and a storm surge raging down neighborhood streets like angry rivers. The National Hurricane Center said the storm surge is 18 to 23 feet above normal tides, with waves even higher.
“These hazards will cause extreme destruction in the affected areas and will continue for several hours,” the center said.