Hurricane Dorian departs Carolinas, aims wrath at Canada

NAGS HEAD, N.C. — Skies cleared and floodwaters receded Saturday from North Carolina’s Outer Banks, leaving behind a muddy trail of destruction wrought by Hurricane Dorian, which turned north and began lashing parts of eastern Canada.

Dorian’s worst damage in the U.S. appeared to be on Ocracoke Island, which even in good weather is accessible only by boat or air and is popular with tourists for its undeveloped beaches. Longtime residents who hunkered down to wait out the storm described strong but manageable winds followed by a wall of water that flooded the first floors of many homes and forced some to await rescue from their attics.

“We’re used to cleaning up dead limbs and trash that’s floating around,” said Ocracoke Island resident and business owner Philip Howard. “But now it’s everything: picnic tables, doors, lumber that’s been floating around.”

Howard said by phone Saturday that flooding at his properties on the North Carolina island is 13 inches higher than the levels wrought by a storm in 1944, which he said had long been considered the worst. He raised his home higher than the 1944 flood level and still got water inside.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Howard, who owns the Village Craftsmen, a store that sells handcrafted pottery, glass and kitchen items. He said much of the merchandise on the lower shelves is ruined. Pieces of pottery were floating around inside.

Gov. Roy Cooper said about 800 people had remained on the island to wait out Dorian . The storm made landfall Friday morning over the Outer Banks as a far weaker storm than the monster that devastated the Bahamas. Yet despite having been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, it still sent seawater surging into homes on Ocracoke, many for the first time in memory.

As it approached Canada, Dorian briefly strengthened to a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph before weakening to a strong Category 1 storm with winds of 93 mph on Saturday afternoon, Canadian officials said.

Forecasters said the center of Dorian was expected to move across central or eastern Nova Scotia late Saturday afternoon or early evening, pass near or over Prince Edward Island late Saturday, and then move to Newfoundland and Labrador on Sunday. Outer bands of Dorian already were producing strong winds and heavy rain in southern New Brunswick and mainland Novia Scotia. Meteorologists expected the storm to weaken to a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall.

Canadian officials prepared for the possibility of flooding, washouts and storm surges, and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the military was mobilizing to assist Nova Scotia.

Officials in Halifax, the Nova Scotian capital and home to 400,000 people, urged downtown businesses to close by 5 p.m.

“We do not want the citizens of Halifax roaming downtown as the water is coming in,” said Erica Fleck, Halifax’s assistant chief of community risk reduction.

Hurricanes in Canada are somewhat rare in part because once the storms reach colder Canadian waters, they lose their main source of energy. Hubbard said the last hurricanes to make landfall in Canada were Hurricane Igor and Hurricane Earl in September, 2010.

While tropicalstorm force winds buffeted southeastern Massachusetts and could sweep into Maine later Saturday, hurricaneforce winds are unlikely to pose any threat to land in the U.S.

In North Carolina, the governor said officials were aware of no serious injuries on the Outer Banks from the storm. About 200 people were in shelters and 57,000 without power as of midday Saturday, according to the governor’s office. Emergency officials transported fuel trucks, generators, food and water to Okracoke.

“We just thought it was gonna be a normal blow,” Steve Harris, a semiretired contractor, said Friday. “But the damage is going to be severe this time. This is flooding of biblical proportions.”

At least four deaths in the Southeast were blamed on Dorian. All were men in Florida or North Carolina who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane.