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Hurricane Dorian prompts evacuations in Bahamas

  • August 31, 2019

Hurricane Dorian is expected to slam into parts of the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dorian is maintaining top sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour) — just slightly less than the 157 miles per hour wind speed that constitutes a catastrophic Category 5 storm.  

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned in a nationally televised briefing that “Hurricane Dorian is a devastating, dangerous storm approaching our islands.”

Read more: The world’s deadliest hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones

In the Bahamas, canned food and bottled water disappeared quickly from shelves and people boarded up their homes.

“We ask for God’s guidance and for God to assist us through this,” Minnis said.

Hurricane Dorian is expected to slam into parts of the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday (picture-alliance/NOAA)

Hurricane Dorian is expected to slam into parts of the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday

Any remaining tourists in the Bahamas were sent to government shelters in schools, churches and other buildings offering protection from the storm.

Over the next two to three days, the hurricane could dump as much as 4 feet (1.2 meters) of rain, unleash devastating winds and whip up an abnormal and dangerous rise in sea level called storm surge, according to private meteorologist Ryan Maue.

The storm-prone Bahamas on average faces a direct hit from a hurricane every four years, officials said.

Forecasters now expect Dorian to curve upward after hitting the Bahamas. The storm’s current path could spare the US a direct hit, but still threatens Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas with powerful winds and rising ocean water that causes potentially deadly flooding.

Florida towns told residents to remain vigilant despite forecasts they might dodge a Dorian landfall, as a tropical storm watch was issued for the state’s south Atlantic coast.

Construction codes in the Bahamas require homes to have metal reinforcements forroof beams to withstand winds into the upper limits of a Category 4 hurricane (Reuters/C. Demony)

Construction codes in the Bahamas require homes to have metal reinforcements for roof beams to withstand winds into the upper limits of a Category 4 hurricane

Meanwhile, North Carolina authorities warned residents Dorian was heading their way.

North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEMA) said the storm was forecast to keep moving in the state’s direction for the next 48 hours.

“Now is the time to prepare and assemble disaster supplies,” said Katie Webster, an NCEMA meteorologist, urging people to prepare a week’s supply of food and water.

sri/sms (AP, Reuters)

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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/hurricane-dorian-prompts-evacuations-in-bahamas/a-50243861?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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