At least seven people have been killed in the Bahamas and officials expect the number to rise. The hurricane battered the region for more than 30 hours, leaving a trail of destruction.
Hurricane Dorian has gathered force and hit the Bahamas on its slow path toward the southeastern US. Experts warned of the life-threatening "fury" of one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Atlantic.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/NASA
Heading up the US coast
Dorian has been downgraded to a Category 3 storm, after exiting the Bahamas. It has continued on a north and northeast path, brushing past Florida and on its way to Georgia and South and North Carolina. Dorian had exploded from a Category 3 to Category 5 hurricane within just two days, with maximal sustained winds reaching up to 295 kilometers (185 miles) per hour, as it hit the Bahamas.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMAPRESS/Zuma Wire/NOAA
Abaco Islands 'decimated'
Aerial footage of the Abaco Islands, Dorian's worst-hit area, showed vast devastation following the storm. Hundreds of homes were missing their roofs, cars were overturned, and widespread flooding and debris was strewn all over. Bahamas' Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said sections of the island had been "decimated."
Image: Reuters/Trans Island Airways/M. Cove
Death toll expected to rise
As of Wednesday evening, 20 people were confirmed dead in the Bahamas due to the storm. Storm surges of 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) left wide areas in the archipelago under water. The international airport and hospital in the main city of Freeport were under water, complicating rescue operations.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Espinosa
Bahamas hit hardest
The eye of the storm moved very slowly, and residents were forced to cope with more than 30 hours of hurricane winds, torrential rain and flooding.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP/R. Espinosa
Bad time for golf
US President Donald Trump has described the storm as "monstrous" and urged everyone to heed any evacuation orders given by the authorities. Previously, Florida officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for Palm Beach County, home of Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf resort. The governors of Georgia and South Carolina also ordered mandatory evacuations of their states' coastal areas.
Image: Getty Images/T. Brenner
Better safe than sorry
The hurricane's path and very slow progress have continued to cause confusion. Even if the storm only grazes the US east coast, local authorities have already set up shelters and urged those in vulnerable areas to relocate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/G. Herbert
Waiting for water
The slow movement of the storm left many in Florida holding their breaths and rushing to stock up on food, water and medicine to last them at least seven days. This Costco store in central Florida only allowed two cases of bottled water per person.
NASA scientists developed this mobile launch pad to help them send more humans to the moon. As the storm threatened to come close to Cape Canaveral, they decided to move it into the massive Vehicle Assembly Building to keep it safe. But NASA was spared the worst, as the storm inched just off the coast of Florida.
Image: Reuters/S. Sesius
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Hurricane Dorian has killed at least seven people in the Bahamas, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said at a press conference on Tuesday evening.
Dorian has been downgraded to a still-dangerous Category 2, and moved away from Grand Bahama island after wreaking havoc on the archipelago. The storm dumped rain, flooded homes and prompted desperate calls for help from stranded people.
Minnis told reporters that Dorian was "one of the greatest national crises in our country's history."
"We can expect more deaths to be recorded, this is just preliminary information," the prime minister said.
The storm brought maximum sustained winds of almost 300 kilometers per hour (165 miles per hour) and gusts of up to 220 mph, as it made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane on Sunday, the most dangerous on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
As the giant storm finally moved away from the Bahamas, authorities are now able to assess the scale of the damage and more accounts of the suffering have begun to emerge.
Abaco 'decimated'
Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief organization and flew over the worst-hit area, the Abaco Islands, described the scene as "total devastation."
"It's decimated, apocalyptic," Head-Rigby said, "It's not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again."
US broadcaster CNN's aerial footage of Great Abaco Island showed the vast devastation that Dorian delivered there. Hundreds of homes were missing their roofs, cars were overturned, and widespread flooding and debris was strewn all over.
"Parts of Abaco are decimated. There's severe flooding, there's severe damage to homes, businesses, other buildings and infrastructure," Minnis said.
Prime Minister Minnis said his country’s residents had endured "hours and days of horror, fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones."
Florida and the Carolinas on alert
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm's core "is moving nearly parallel to, but offshore of, the east coast of central Florida."
Dorian's center is forecast to then move near or over the coast of South and North Carolina Thursday through Friday morning, the NHC said.
The governors of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have ordered mandatory evacuations of their states' coastal areas as of noon Monday. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told reporters Monday in ocean-side Savannah: "This is not one to play with."
