WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Hurricane Dorian made landfall on Sunday in the Bahamas as a category 5 storm, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said as people in the US south-eastern coast stepped up preparations for its arrival there in the coming days.
Dorian, described by the NHC as a “catastrophic hurricane,” came on shore at Elbow Cay at 12:40 pm (1640 GMT) in the Abaco Islands, the centre said.
It was heading “with all its fury” toward Grand Bahama Island, the NHC said in its 2 pm summary.
The NHC warned the public to expect a life-threatening storm surge and very heavy rainfall. Authorities urged the 400,000-strong population of the islands to seek shelter or higher ground.
Meteorologists fear that the slow-moving centre of the storm could remain over the Bahamas for a long time and cause great damage.
Dorian is moving toward the west at 11 kilometres per hour. At that rate it is projected to move closer to Florida’s east coast late Monday through Tuesday night, NHC said.
Its current maximum sustained winds are near 295 km/h with higher gusts, and hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 75 kilometres from the eye. Some fluctuations in intensity are likely, but Dorian is expected to remain a catastrophic hurricane during the next few days, NHC said.
Category 5 is the highest level hurricane, and only a small percentage of Atlantic hurricanes have ever reached that level. Only four of the 35 recorded made landfall in the continental United States, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Meteorologists have said it remains difficult to predict Dorian’s track, but most weather models show that it will weaken slightly, turn toward the north and move along the US coastline over the coming days, affecting the states of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Pete Gaynor, deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) described Dorian as a “long-duration storm” in an interview with Fox News.
“The key word is uncertainty,” Gaynor said. “We’ve been dealing with uncertainty pretty much the entire time with Dorian.”
Gaynor, who met earlier Sunday with President Donald Trump to brief him on storm preparations, said people should take time now to prepare.
“Don’t dismiss this storm,” he said, noting that 90 per cent of all weather related deaths are caused by water.
Trump urged residents of the region to prepare for the storm and officials said they will be dealing with the hurricane’s impacts all week.
“It’s one of the largest we’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “Its effects will be felt hundreds of miles or more from the eye of the storm and long before it potentially makes landfall. We expect that most of the Eastern Seaboard will be ultimately impacted, and some of it very, very severely.”
Trump cancelled his visit to Poland for a commemoration Sunday of the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, saying he needed to be on hand for Dorian.
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