Hurricane Dorian, stalled over Bahamas, weakens slightly but still
dangerous
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[September 03, 2019]
By Dante Carrer
MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas (Reuters) -
Hurricane Dorian, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on
record, weakened slightly early on Tuesday as it remained stalled over
Grand Bahama Island, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC)
said.
Dorian has been pounding the Bahamas for days, killing at least five
people in the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas and inundating homes
with floodwater ahead of its expected advance on the U.S. coast, where
more than a million people have been ordered evacuated.
But the hurricane weakened to a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson
Wind Scale early on Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles
per hour (195 kph), down from 130 miles, the NHC said. It is expected to
stay put until at least later in the morning.
The exact toll of the devastation in the Bahamas will not be clear until
the storm passes and rescue crews can get on the ground.
"We are in the midst of a historic tragedy in parts of our northern
Bahamas," Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told a news conference
on Monday. "Our mission and focus now is search, rescue and recovery."
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He added that the U.S. Coast Guard was on the ground in Abaco and had
rescued a number of injured individuals. Critically injured people were
being taken to hospitals on New Providence, the country's most populous
island.
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.
Houses in a neighborhood in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island were
engulfed by 6 feet (1.8 m) of water. "It looks like they're boats on top
of the water," said Rosa Knowles-Bain, 61, a resident who fled two days
ago to an emergency shelter.
Dorian was expected to drift to the northwest late on Tuesday and stalk
the coasts of Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, it said.
Forecasters have told Floridians not to become complacent, as the storm
is now predicted to stay off the coast.
"It's not that far off shore," said Robbie Berg, a forecaster and
hurricane specialist with the NHC.
"All it has to do is jog a little bit west and you have a full-on
hurricane rolling through Florida," he said. "No one is out of the
woods."
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EVACUATIONS
Nine counties in Florida have issued mandatory evacuations. They
included parts of Duval County, home to Jacksonville, one of Florida's
two biggest cities, and some areas in Palm Beach County, home to Trump's
Mar-a-Lago resort.
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![](../images/090319pics/news_a3.jpg)
The eye of Hurricane Dorian remains near the city of Freeport,
Bahamas in a satellite photograph distributed by the NOAA's National
Weather Service September 2, 2019. National Weather Service/Handout
via REUTERS.
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged coastal residents to heed
evacuation orders.
Among those being evacuated was Sue Watson, a 93-year-old resident
of a retirement community in Kissimmee in central Florida.
"I was all set to stay home until they had to turn the water off,"
said Watson, who added she was not worried for her personal safety
but hoped the storm spared the retirement community.
The storm was causing havoc for travelers on Florida's east coast,
where some airports and gasoline stations were closed.
Orlando International Airport, one of the largest in the state,
planned to cease commercial operations at 2 a.m. on Tuesday because
of the storm, it said in a statement.
Walt Disney World Resort <DIS.N> in Orlando will close early on
Tuesday, it said in a statement.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster ordered mandatory evacuations
for parts of eight coastal counties effective at noon on Monday.
More than 830,000 people were under evacuation orders in Charleston
and other coastal communities in the state, emergency management
officials announced.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp ordered evacuations in six coastal
counties, including all of Savannah's 150,000 residents, also
effective at noon on Monday, Kemp's office said on Twitter.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency in his
state on Monday, his office said, anticipating the southeast coast
could be hit by the storm on Thursday.
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Dorian was tied with Gilbert (1988), Wilma (2005) and the 1935 Labor
Day hurricane for the second-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record,
based on maximum sustained winds. Allen in 1980 was the most
powerful, with 190 miles (306-kph) winds, the NHC said.
(Reporting by Dante Carrer in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, Gabriella
Borter in Titusville, Florida, Peter Szekely and Kenneth Li in New
York, Steve Holland in Washington, Rebekah F. Ward in Mexico City,
Rich Mckay in Atlanta, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Matthew
Green in London and Ankit Ajmera and Philip George in Bengaluru;
Editing by Gareth Jones)
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