Hurricane Dorian has hit the Southeastern U.S. states of North and South Carolina, bringing tornadoes and flooded roads.
“We know we’re in for a long night and we’ll be eager to see the sunshine in the morning,” North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper told the Atlanta-based cable news network, CNN.
Dorian weakened to a Category 1 hurricane early Friday, with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour (90 mph).
The National Hurricane Center says “slow weakening” is expected of Dorian “during the next few days.” The center says Dorian is expected to remain “a powerful hurricane as its center moves near the coasts of South and North Carolina.”
Forecasters do not expect Dorian to make a direct landfall Friday but will instead skirt the North Carolina coast, bringing life-threatening storm surges to North Carolina and southern Virginia before moving away from land.
A potent storm
Dorian will remain a potent storm straight into the weekend, however, with tropical storm warnings posted as far north as Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The Canadian Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for all of Nova Scotia.
Thousands of people in the Bahamas have begun the long, painful struggle to rebuild their lives following Hurricane Dorian.
International search-and-rescue teams are spreading across Abaco and Grand Bahamas islands looking for survivors.
Late Thursday, the death toll in the Bahamas had risen to 30.
Bahamian Health Minister Duane Sands told the Associated Press he expects that number to become “significantly higher.”
The French news agency AFP reported teams of men in masks and white protective suits were seen placing bodies enclosed in green body bags onto a flatbed truck.
Homes have been transformed into matchsticks.
“It’s hell everywhere,” said Brian Harvey, a Canadian who was on his sailboat when Dorian hit.
The U.S. Coast Guard and British Royal Navy have ships docked off the islands, and the United Nations is sending eight tons of ready-to-eat meals and satellite communications equipment.
The Royal Caribbean and Walt Disney cruise lines, which usually carry happy tourists to Bahamian resorts, are instead using ships to deliver food, water, flashlights and other vital aid.
Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia, has offered free classes and room and board to students from the University of the Bahamas for the current fall semester.
After the fall semester, any students who remain will be charged the regular rates.
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