Hurricane Dorian batters Bahamas as Category 5 storm.

Dorian strengthens to Category 5 storm with 220 mph wind gusts

Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sunday, the strongest storm on record to hit the northwestern part of the archipelago, leaving residents seeking shelter as they faced rising waters, torrential rains and wind gusts up to 220 mph.

The storm strengthened to a Category 5 on Sunday before it made landfall. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center called it “catastrophic” and warned that its “extreme winds and storm surge will continue for several hours.”

A region that prides itself on withstanding powerful storms, the Bahamas has revamped building codes and stepped up enforcement to prepare for disasters. But the combination of Dorian’s slow pace, furious wind speeds and heavy rainfall with the low-lying islands’ vulnerability to flooding could be lethal.

Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, who had warned that 73,000 residents and 21,000 homes could be affected, urged Grand Bahama Island residents Sunday to move to safer ground in Freeport.

“As a physician, I have been trained to withstand many things — but never anything like this,” Minnis said. “This is a deadly storm and a monster storm.”

As it approached the Bahamas, the storm grew larger, with winds extending up to 45 miles from the center. Its core was expected to move slowly — at 7 mph — over the Abaco Islands and toward Grand Bahama on Sunday, bringing with it a storm surge that could raise water levels as much as 18 to 23 feet above normal and deliver more than 2 feet of rainfall in some areas.

In some parts of Abaco, the prime minister said, “you cannot tell the difference as to the beginning of the street versus where the ocean begins.”

Reaching sustained wind speeds of 185 mph, Hurricane Dorian is tied for second place among hurricanes in the Atlantic basin with the highest wind speeds, according to Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.