Hurricane Dorian one step away from the United States
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
After devastating the Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian is off the American East Coast: “Widespread and significant flooding expected”.
Hurricane Dorian one step away from the United States
After devastating the Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian is off the American East Coast: “Widespread and significant flooding expected”.
Hurricane Dorian – after causing apocalyptic scenes in the Bahamas, killing at least 20 people and leaving 70,000 in need of immediate aid – began hitting the American coastline in the early hours of today, Thursday 5 September. Having tracked across the Atlantic Ocean, it also regained strength, climbing back up to category 3 (on Wednesday it had been temporarily downgraded to category 2).
With winds of 185 km/h, the hurricane heads north
Winds are currently reaching 185 kilometres per hour, according to the US meteorological service. At 5 this morning, Italian time, Dorian was approximately 170 kilometres south of Charleston, South Carolina, and was moving at a speed of 11 km/h. The landfall point – the moment at which it will make contact with land – is expected to be in North Carolina.
#Dorian has restrengthened and is now a Category 3 hurricane. Our crews are LIVE all night bringing you the latest on the storm.
The National Hurricane Center (National Hurricane Center, NHC) issued a bulletin on Wednesday evening explaining that "significant flooding is expected along a large portion of the coastlines in the south-eastern and Mid-Atlantic states".
9 pm Tropical Cyclone Update for #Dorian: Life Threatening Storm Surge with Significant Coastal Flooding is Expected Along a Large Portion of the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Coasts During the Next Couple of Days. More at hurricanes.gov and weather.gov
The town of Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas is 60 per cent destroyed
The material damage caused by the hurricane in the Bahamas is meanwhile beginning to be quantified. The extreme weather event battered the archipelago for dozens of hours, remaining virtually stationary for almost an entire day. The total rainfall reached 76 centimetres.
According to Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, Marsh Harbour, the main town on the Abaco Islands (the Bahamas' second-largest territory by area), is 60 per cent destroyed by the hurricane. The Red Cross has indicated that the total number of homes damaged or destroyed amounts to at least 13,000. United Nations official Mark Lowcock announced the allocation of one million dollars to provide the first emergency relief on the ground.