ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. –Hurricane Dorian howledover North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday, lashing the low-lying barrier islands as a weakened Category 1 storm and making landfall over Cape Hatteras.
The storm’s powerful winds still knocked out power at almost 200, 000 homes and businesses across the state as massive waves threatened buildings along the coast.
Water in some streets was up to cars’ bumpers here, pelting the area with wind and rain Friday morning.
Dare County, which includes North Carolina’s Outer Banks, remained under curfew, with access to the coastal county restricted. Meanwhile, further north, a round of evacuations were also ordered for Virginians in harm’s way.
“Dorian should remain a powerful hurricane as it moves near or along the coast of North Carolina during the next several hours,” the National Hurricane Center said.
How will Dorian affect your state?Here’s a look at the fury facing communities
Around 9 am EDT, the agency said Dorian’s center made landfall over Cape Hatteras and was moving 14 mph northeast with winds up to 90 mph.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association weather station at Cape Lookout, located inside the western eyewall of Dorian, reported sustained hurricane-force winds of 74 mph, the hurricane center reported early Friday.
Wilmington saw heavy rainfall with as much as 15 inches forecast that could cause dangerous flash floods. Trees bent in the wind and traffic lights swayed.
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Up to 7 feet of storm surge was possible from Salter Path to Duck, and parts of southeastern Virginia could see up to 4 feet of storm surge, the hurricane center says.
About 150 evacuees were camped out at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, speedway spokesman Scott Cooper said.
Earlier,Dorian devastated the Bahamaswith 185 – mph winds, leaving at least 30 people dead, after its slow trek through the Caribbean. At one point, the threat of a major hurricane making landfall along Florida’s east coast loomed, but the storm lurched north instead,staying 60 to 80 miles offshore as it passed by.
In South Carolina,the storm created tornadoesThursday that ripped off roofs and flipped trailers. A quarter of a million homes and businesses were left without power.
“People have to realize it’s not just about the center” of the storm, said Ken Graham, director of the hurricane center. “You have to look at the whole storm.”
However, from the Lowcountry to the Grand Strand, there was a sigh of relief as potentially historic flash floods did not overwhelm.
Historic downtown Charleston did see up to a foot of wateron some streets Thursday, and gusts reached up to 80 mph in some areas. But Mayor John Tecklenburg said in a tweet that during the city’s recovery efforts, “I’m counting our blessings.”
The fears of seawater overtopping the walls of The Battery and torrential rainfall leaving the city underwater proved unfounded, as water in the streets leveled off Friday morning.
It was a similar scene in Myrtle Beach. Palmetto limbs snapped Thursday and littered the sidewalks in this tourist town on Friday morning.
Consider this:Dorian is cranking up tornadoes along the Carolina coasts
At least four deaths have been attributed to Dorian in the mainland US, which all involved men who died in falls or were electrocuted while preparing for the storm in Florida and North Carolina.
In the Bahamas, Dorian decimated much of Grand Bahama and Abaco islands over the weekend when the storm stalled a Category 5 hurricane. Homes were leveled, cars were flipped, trees were uprooted and, horrifically, children were swept aware in the storm surge.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said the death toll was expected to rise as storm rescue workers scour islands.
You’re alive. You’re alive. ‘” How one family hunted for loved ones amid Dorian’s wreckage
The Bahamian government sent hundreds of police and marines into the stricken islands, along with doctors, nurses and other health care workers. The U.S. Coast Guard, Britain’s Royal Navy and relief organizations, including the United Nations and the Red Cross, joined the growing effort to rush food and medicine to survivors and lift the most desperate people to safety by helicopter.
Contributing: John Bacon, Trevor Hughes and Joey Garrison, USA TODAY; Brian Gordon, Asheville Citizen Times; Eric Connor and Carol Motsinger, The Greenville News; The Associated Press.
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