Dorian grazes Carolina coast, aims for Outer Banks

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Hurricane Dorian sideswiped the Carolinas with shrieking winds, tornadoes and sideways rain Thursday as it closed in for a possible direct hit on the dangerously exposed Outer Banks. At least four deaths in the Southeast were blamed on the storm.

Twisters spun off by Dorian peeled away roofs and flipped trailers, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses were left without power as the hurricane pushed north along the coastline, its winds weakening to 105 mph by evening. Trees and power lines littered flooded streets in Charleston’s historic downtown. Gusts topping 80 mph hit some areas.

The damage from the same storm that mauled the Bahamas was mercifully light in many parts of South Carolina and Georgia as well, and by midafternoon many of the 1.5 million people who had been forced to evacuate in three states were allowed to return.

Still, forecasters warned that Dorian could run straight over North Carolina’s Outer Banks — the thin line of islands that stick out from the U.S. coast like a boxer’s chin — late Thursday or early Friday. To the north, Virginia was also in harm’s way, and a round of evacuations was ordered there.

“We have a long night ahead of us. Everyone needs to stay in a safe place and off the roads until the storm passes,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

After leaving at least 20 people dead when it slammed the Bahamas with 185 mph winds, Dorian swept past Florida at a relatively safe distance, grazed Georgia, and then hugged the South CarolinaNorth Carolina coastline.

The National Hurricane Center forecast as much as 15 inches of rain for the coastal Carolinas, with flashflooding likely.

In Charleston, a historic port city of handsome antebellum homes on a peninsula that is prone to flooding even from ordinary storms, Dorian toppled some 150 trees, swamped roads and brought down power lines, officials said, but the flooding and wind weren’t nearly as bad as feared.

The four deaths attributed to the storm took place in Florida and North Carolina. All of them involved men who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane.

As it closed in on the Eastern Seaboard, Navy ships were ordered to ride out the storm at sea, and military aircraft were moved inland. More than 700 airline flights scheduled for Thursday and Friday were canceled. And hundreds of shelter animals were airlifted from coastal South Carolina to Delaware.

Al Diiaz / Associated Press People walk through a neighborhood destroyed by Hurricane Dorian at Marsh Harbour in Great Abaco Island, Bahamas on Thursday.

Jason Lee / Associated Press Jack and Linda Hodgkiss look at a tree that fell across Bayshore Drive in Little River, S.C., possibly caused by one of the tornados that passed through the area as Hurricane Dorian approached South Carolina on Thursday.