MIAMI (Florida, US), Sept 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hurricane Dorian churned along the southeastern coast of the United States as the storm’s death toll in the Bahamas rose to seven.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis termed Dorian “one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history,” announcing the updated toll and saying that it would likely rise further.
“We can expect more deaths to be recorded. This is just preliminary information,” Minnis told journalists.
As many as 13,000 homes in the Bahamas may have been destroyed or severely damaged, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
Dorian, which over the weekend had been one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, inundated homes with floodwater in the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas ahead of its expected advance on the US East Coast, where more than a million people had been ordered evacuated.
The hurricane weakened early on Tuesday to a Category 2 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, with maximum sustained winds of 175km per hour, the US National Hurricane Centre said. It was moving northwest at 1.6kph, below walking speed, and was about 170km east of Fort Pierce, Florida.
The NHC warned that Dorian remained dangerous despite the reduced wind speed.
Dorian was expected to churn towards Florida by Tuesday’s end, before bringing its powerful winds and dangerous surf along the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina by late Thursday.
Dorian could drive seawater inland as it approaches, with parts of the northern Florida and Georgia coasts seeing as much as 2.1m, said NHC Director Ken Graham, urging residents of coastal areas to obey any evacuation orders.
Hurricane-force winds extended 100km from the storm’s core, with still-dangerous tropical storm-force winds felt for 280km from its centre.
Nine counties in Florida have issued mandatory evacuation orders. They included parts of Duval County, which includes Jacksonville, one of Florida’s two biggest cities, and some areas in Palm Beach County, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Orlando International Airport ceased commercial operations because of the storm, it said in a statement.
The governors of Georgia and South Carolina had ordered evacuations of some coastal counties.
Dorian was tied with Gilbert (1988), Wilma (2005) and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane for the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, based on maximum sustained winds. Allen in 1980 was the most powerful, with 306kph winds, the NHC said. — NNN-AGENCIES
