September 6, 2019
Residents
of the coastal Northeast are the next in line to feel the disruptive
effects from Dorian even as the hurricane lurks offshore.
Hurricane
Dorian made landfall in the United States Friday morning. After
flirting with landfall on the East Coast since Tuesday night, the storm
officially came ashore in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at 8:35 a.m.,
the National Hurricane Center said.
Dorian
made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, maintaining maximum sustained
winds of 90 mph. The hurricane stomped up the Eastern Seaboard causing
widespread power outages, flooding and unleashing damaging tornadoes
throughout the Carolinas.
There
have been four Dorian-related deaths in the United States in the past
week, officials have said -- three in Florida and one in North Carolina.
Two of the deaths were victims who were preparing for the storm, according to The Associated Press. In addition, the death of an 80-year-old man was reported in Puerto Rico
after falling from a ladder while climbing the roof of his residence to
clean the drains as part of the preparations prior to the passage of
Dorian.
Dorian was
downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Friday morning after regaining
major hurricane status during the middle of the week.
Despite
losing wind intensity, the hurricane continues to pack a punch in terms
of heavy rainfall, particularly in North Carolina's outer banks, where
hundreds were stranded amid rising floodwaters on Ocracoke
Island. "There is significant concern about hundreds of people trapped
on Ocracoke Island,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a Friday
press conference about the developing situation.
“There are rescue teams ready as soon as they can get in," the governor added.
Cooper
said the island was subjected to significant storm surge and waters
were "rising quickly there" as Dorian lashed the coastline. He urged
people on the island to get to the highest points of their homes to
avoid the deluge.
Significant
rain totals were being recorded in various places around the state as
Dorian swept through. Wilmington, North Carolina, picked up 8.58 inches
on Thursday alone. The city normally receives 7.88 inches during the
entire month of September.
Water levels were rising on beaches in Wilmington as high tide approached on Thursday. AccuWeather Digital Journalist Chaffin Dos Santos was in Wilmington reporting on the storm's worsening impacts as Dorian approached the city.
While
there continues to be a risk of isolated tornadoes in eastern North
Carolina and southeastern Virginia, this risk has substantially
decreased since Thursday. A frenzy of tornadic activity came during the
early morning hours of Thursday in southeastern North Carolina. The
twisters resulted in numerous damage reports as the region continued to
be pelted by Dorian's increasing winds, heavy rain and storm surge.
The
National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center reports 13
preliminary tornadoes in the area on Thursday, and this number may
increase as crews survey additional damage. Video from Carolina Shores, North Carolina, showed homes ripped apart, RVs tossed on their sides and numerous trees uprooted.
Power
outages increased as winds picked up speed, with nearly 190,000
customers without power in South Carolina Thursday evening, according to PowerOutage.US.
While the number of power outages has since decreased in South
Carolina, they are on the rise in North Carolina, with over 176,000
customers without power as of early Friday morning.
(AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Residents of the Bogue Shores condominiums work to hook up a
generator after the complex lost its roof during high winds from
Hurricane Dorian in Atlantic Beach, N.C., on Friday, Sept. 6, 2019. Only
a few residents stayed behind after an evacuation order and no one was
injured.
The
destruction in the Carolinas was just the latest in the notorious
storm's devastating history, which goes back to when the hurricane left
historic and catastrophic damage in the northern Bahamas earlier this week , causing at least 30 deaths. Officials in the Bahamas expect the death toll to continue to increase.
Dorian's
lifespan is expected to last into the weekend, as it is forecast to
pound areas of the Northeast coast, then accelerate to the north where
it will make landfall on Canada's Atlantic Coast.
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