Category 5 storm Dorian slams into Bahamas

MIAMI: Monster hurricane Dorian made landfall in the northern Bahamas on Sunday, lashing the low-lying island chain with devastating 185 mph (290 kph) winds and gusts of up to 220 mph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

The landfall occurred on Elbow Cay, a small island four miles east of Great Abaco Island, at 12:40 pm (1640 GMT), the NHC reported. It said Dorian´s maximum sustained winds — already a record for this area — had further strengthened from its last update. Earlier, “devastating hurricane conditions” were expected in the Abaco Islands and across Grand Bahama island on Sunday, the centre said. Millions from Florida to the Carolinas kept a wary eye on Dorian, meanwhile, amid indications it would veer sharply north-eastward after passing the Bahamas and track up the US south east seaboard.

But authorities warned even if its core did not make US landfall and stayed offshore, the potent storm was likely to hammer US coastal areas with powerful winds and heavy surf. In the northern stretches of the Bahamas archipelago, hotels closed, residents boarded up homes and officials hired boats to move people from low-lying areas to bigger islands as Dorian approached. Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned that Dorian is a “dangerous storm” and said any “who do not evacuate are placing themselves in extreme danger and can expect a catastrophic consequence”.

Small skiffs shuttled between outlying fishing communities and McLean’s Town, a settlement of a few dozen homes at the eastern end of Grand Bahama island, about 150 miles from Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Most people came from Sweeting Cay, a fishing town of a few hundred people about 5ft above sea level. Over two or three days, the slow-moving hurricane could dump as much as 4ft of rain, unleash devastating winds and whip up a dangerous storm surge, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, seconding some of the most reliable computer models.

Government spokesman Kevin Harris said Dorian was expected to impact some 73,000 residents and 21,000 homes. Authorities closed airports for the Abaco Islands, Grand Bahama and Bimini, but Lynden Pindling International Airport at the capital of Nassau remained open.

Jeffrey Allen, who lives in Freeport on Grand Bahama, said he had learned after several storms that sometimes predictions of damage do not materialise, but he still takes precautions.

“It’s almost as if you wait with anticipation, hoping that it’s never as bad as they say it will be. However, you prepare for the worst nonetheless,” he said. On average, the Bahamas archipelago gets a direct hit from a hurricane every four years, officials said.

Construction codes require homes to have metal reinforcements for roof beams to withstand winds into the upper limits of a Category 4 hurricane, and compliance is generally tight for residents who can afford it. Risks are higher in poorer communities, which typically have wooden homes and are generally in lower-lying areas.

The slow-crawling storm was predicted to take until Monday afternoon to pass over the Bahamas, and then turn sharply and skirt up the US coast, staying just off Florida and Georgia on Tuesday and Wednesday and then buffeting South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday. Florida governor Ron DeSantis warned residents along the state’s densely populated Atlantic coast: “We’re not out of the woods yet.” He noted some forecast models still bring Dorian close to or even on to the Florida peninsula.