‘Monster storm’: Hurricane Dorian slams into Bahamas, unleashing 185-mph winds

Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sunday, the strongest storm on record to hit the northwestern part of the archipelago, leaving residents seeking shelter as they faced rising waters, torrential rains and wind gusts up to 220 mph.

The storm strengthened to a Category 5 on Sunday before it made landfall. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center called it “catastrophic” and warned that its “extreme winds and storm surge will continue for several hours.”

This is a region that prides itself on withstanding powerful storms, and the Bahamas has revamped its building codes and stepped up enforcement to prepare for disasters such as this one. But the combination of Dorian’s slow pace, furious wind speeds and heavy rainfall with the low-lying islands’ vulnerability to flooding could be lethal.

Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, who had warned that 73,000 residents and 21,000 homes could be affected, urged residents of Grand Bahama Island on Sunday to move to safer ground in the main city of Freeport. On the Abaco Islands, parts of the main city of Marsh Harbour flooded.

“As a physician, I have been trained to withstand many things - but never anything like this,” Minnis said during a news conference. “This is a deadly storm and a monster storm.”

As it approached the Bahamas, the storm grew larger, with winds extending up to 45 miles from the center. Its core was expected to move slowly - at 7 mph - over the Abaco Islands and toward Grand Bahama on Sunday, bringing with it a storm surge that could raise water levels as much as 18 to 23 feet above normal and deliver more than 2 feet of rainfall in some areas.

In some parts of Abaco, the prime minister said, “you cannot tell the difference as to the beginning of the street versus where the ocean begins.”

Reaching sustained wind speeds of 185 mph, Hurricane Dorian is tied for second place among hurricanes in the Atlantic basin with the highest wind speeds, according to Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Records go back to 1951.

Residents hunkered down in schools, churches and other emergency shelters, but there was concern that some would try to brave the storm in their homes.

Minnis had ominous words for those who had not sought shelter.

“I hope this is not the last time they will hear my voice,” he said. “And may God be with them.”

On Great Abaco Island, where surging waters were gushing through the streets, he warned, “They are now in for the long haul.”

Shelters on Abaco are full, said Louby Georges, director of international affairs for Human Rights Bahamas. Many of Marsh Harbour’s poorer residents had sought refuge in churches, but those churches were not on the list of government shelters to receive food and water, so Georges was worried that they would run out of supplies.

“My guy at St. Francis Church said there is no drinking water,” Georges said in a telephone interview from Nassau, the Bahamian capital. “There are no trained emergency personnel with them.”

Residents in Abaco were growing desperate as the storm bore down on them, he said.

“People are sending voice notes, people are crying,” he said. “You can hear people hollering in the background.”

Frankie Fleuridor, an activist who works with the Haitian community in Marsh Harbour, was worried that not everybody would be able to leave.

“It’s tough for people in the shantytowns,” he said, because their plywood houses are not built to withstand hurricane winds and are vulnerable to flooding.

He said that he had rented hotel rooms for the most vulnerable, but could not afford to do more.

“I’m maxed out,” he said.

Darren Henfield, the foreign minister and a member of Parliament from Abaco, said that residents of one of the vulnerable neighborhoods in Marsh Harbour, called the Mudd, took advantage of a lull as the storm passed over to leave their damaged homes and seek safety in the main government building.

“We’re now set to ride out the rest of the storm,” he said over the Broadcasting Corp. of the Bahamas.

Forecasters expect the storm to creep nearer to the coast of Florida through Monday and then swing northward, paralleling the mainland coast. Though it may not make landfall all week if it follows that track, its strong winds and heavy rains, storm surge and punishing surf could still do major damage in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida warned Sunday that while forecasts now suggested that Hurricane Dorian may veer north offshore, a slight nudge could bring its powerful eye to landfall somewhere along Florida’s Atlantic coast.

“We’ve got to prepare for that eventuality,” DeSantis said, speaking from the state’s emergency operations in Tallahassee, the capital. He was surrounded by a small group of grim-faced public officials.

Even if the storm stays offshore, the state will probably still experience dangerous storm surge and some flooding. At least four counties have begun evacuating coastal communities, with several more expected to follow. Among those ordering evacuations was Palm Beach County, which includes the barrier island where Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club and favorite winter destination, is located.

DeSantis tried to put Dorian’s sustained winds of 185 mph in perspective. “South Florida has had one hurricane in our history - the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 - that reached that level, and that was total destruction,” he said. “The strength of this storm cannot be underestimated.”

With forecasters now expecting the storm to move north before making landfall, the governors of North and South Carolina have declared states of emergency, adding to those already declared in all of Florida and in 12 counties in Georgia.

The National Hurricane Center said some tracking models suggest that the storm may make landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina, on Thursday or Friday. Though its winds are expected to have weakened somewhat, the storm could still lash the coastline with winds of up to 80 mph, and could dump as much as 10 inches.