Bahamas nearly destroyed by Slow Hurricane
The storm has remained stationary but was expected to turn toward the United States and arrive near Florida by late Tuesday.
Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 3 storm, remained stalled over the Bahamas early Tuesday, pummeling the islands with unrelenting rain and winds as the United States held on to perceive what dangerous way it would take.
The storm, one of the strongest on record in the Atlantic, remained stationary just north of Grand Bahama Island, delivering 120 mile-per-hour winds and ceaseless downpours that have flooded neighborhoods, destroyed homes and killed at least five people.
It is highly unusual for a storm of Dorian’s magnitude to halt and hover over land, bringing what officials fear could be catastrophic damage to the Caribbean islands.
“Dorian won’t budge,” the National Weather Service said in an update at 1 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.
Officials in the Bahamas had not yet determined the full scope of the damage there, with the relentless rains and winds making it difficult to reach many of the smaller islands struck by the hurricane. The storm was expected to continue to pound Grand Bahama Island through Tuesday morning, and rescuers said they probably won’t most likely send groups until as late as Wednesday.
Consideration will before long go to the United States, with the probability of serious harm over a wide swath of the East Coast. A hurricane warning extended across 240 miles of the Florida coast, some coastal residents in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas were ordered to evacuate, and the governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency.