Tuesday 02 / July / 2024
Bahamas: Hurricane Dorian is expected to bring a "life-threatening storm surge" up the US east coast after causing destruction and at least 20 deaths in the Bahamas.
Residents from Georgia all the way up to Virginia are warned to listen to emergency advice as the category three hurricane slowly moves north.
Police say parts of Charleston, South Carolina, have flooded and conditions are "beginning to deteriorate”.
Dorian weakened after hitting the Bahamas but has now strengthened again.
It currently has maximum sustained winds of 115mph (185km/h).
On 1 September it hit the Bahamas with winds of up to 185mph (298km/h) - equalling the highest ever recorded at landfall. It battered the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, in the north of the archipelago, for two days.
Bahamas PM Hubert Minnis called the storm "one of the greatest national crises in our country's history". He expected the number of fatalities to increase.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Dorian was 170km (105 miles) south-east of Charleston and moving north at about 11km/h (7mph).
It is expected to turn north-east on Thursday and speed up.
The NHC warns that a "life-threatening storm surge with significant coastal flooding is expected along a large portion of the south-east and mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States in the next couple of days”.
South Carolina is preparing for a record storm surge and the effects are already being felt.
Dorian is forecast to move "near or over" the coast of South Carolina on Thursday, then the coast of North Carolina overnight and on Friday.
Graphics showed waters could rise up to 8ft (2.4m) above ground level on the South Carolina coast, and up to 15 inches of rain could fall in the coming days.
"Time to get out is running out," the state's governor Henry McMaster told reporters.
"Water levels could rise well in advance of the arrival of strong winds," the NHC said, adding these storm surges are expected "regardless of the exact track of Dorian's centre”.
More than 2.2 million people have been ordered to evacuate along the eastern seaboard.
Although Grand Bahama suffered severe damage and floods, the northern Abaco Islands were hardest hit. Footage taken from the air showed vast swathes of destruction.
Homes, roads and businesses have been torn apart, and high waters remain.
Health Minister Duane Sands told reporters that 17 had died in the Abaco Islands and three on Grand Bahama. These figures are reportedly expected to rise as rescuers search through the devastated country.
"There's nothing left in most of Marsh Harbour," said Alicia Cook, who evacuated from the area in the Abaco Islands. "People are starting to panic: pillaging, looting.”
