Dorian strikes with record fury as Category 5 storm

McLEAN’S TOWN CAY (AP):

Hurricane Dorian struck the northern Bahamas on Sunday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, its record 185mph winds ripping off roofs and tearing down power lines as hundreds hunkered in schools, churches and other shelters.

Dorian hit land in Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands at 12:40 p.m., and then made a second landfall near Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island at 2 p.m., after authorities made last-minute pleas for those in low-lying areas to evacuate.

With its maximum sustained winds of 185mph (295kph), it tied the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to come ashore, equaling the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before the storms were named.

Millions from Florida to the Carolinas kept a wary eye on the slow-moving Dorian amid indications it would veer sharply northeastwards after passing the Bahamas and track up the US Southeast seaboard. But authorities warned that even if its core did not make US landfall, the potent storm would likely hammer the coast with powerful winds and heavy surf.

With gusts of over 220mph, Dorian was moving west at seven miles per hour (11 kph). “Catastrophic conditions” were reported in The Abaco Islands and the storm was expected to cross Grand Bahama later in the day “with all its fury,” the centre said.

ALLEN’S POWER

Dorian’s power was second only to Hurricane Allen in 1980, with its 190mph winds. That storm did not make landfall.

“It’s going to be really, really bad for the Bahamas,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.

In the northern stretches of the archipelago, hotels closed, residents boarded up homes and officials hired boats to move people to bigger islands.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis warned that any “who do not evacuate are placing themselves in extreme danger and can expect a catastrophic consequence.”

Still, dozens ignored evacuation orders, officials said, despite the danger.

“The end could be fatal,” said Samuel Butler, assistant police commissioner. “We ask you, we beg you, we plead with you to get to a place of safety.”

Bahamas radio station ZNS Bahamas reported that a mother and her child in central Grand Bahama called to say they were sheltering in a closet and seeking help from the police.

Silbert Mills, owner of the Bahamas Christian Network, said trees and power lines were torn down in The Abaco Islands and some roads were impassable.

“The winds are howling like we’ve never, ever experienced before,” said Mills, 59, who planned to ride out the hurricane with his family in the concrete home he built 41 years ago in central Abaco.

Among those refusing to leave were 32 people in Sweetings Cay, and a group that sought safety in Old Bahama Bay resort, which officials said was not safe.

STRANDED RESIDENTS

Butler said officials were closing some roads with heavy equipment and warned that those on the other side would be stranded until Dorian passed. The government has opened 14 shelters across the Bahamas.

“We cannot stress the amount of devastation and catastrophic impact that Hurricane Dorian is expected to bring,” said Shavonne Moxey-Bonamy, the Bahamas chief meteorologist.

Earlier Saturday, small skiffs shuttled between outlying fishing communities and McLean’s Town, a settlement of a few dozen homes at the eastern end of Grand Bahama island, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) from Florida’s Atlantic coast. Most came from Sweetings Cay, a fishing town of a few hundred about five feet (1.5 metres) above sea level.

“We’re not taking no chances,” said Margaret Bassett, a ferry boat driver for the Deep Water Cay resort. “They said evacuate, you have to evacuate.”

But Jack Pittard, a 76-year-old American who has visited the Bahamas for 40 years, said he has decided to ride out the storm – his first hurricane – in The Abaco Islands.

A short video from Pittard about 2:30 p.m. showed winds shaking his home and ripping off its siding.

He said he battened up his house and is spending the storm in a nearby duplex behind a group of cottages owned by a friend. He noted the ocean is quite deep near where he’s staying, and there’s a cay that provides protection, so he doesn’t expect significant storm surge.

“I’m not afraid of dying here,” said Pittard, who lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Meanwhile, Klotzbach, the hurricane researcher, warned of Dorian’s catastrophic strength: “Abaco is going to get wiped.”