Body bags and additional morticians and refrigerated coolers to properly store bodies are being transported to Abaco and other affected areas as the death toll continues to soar, Bahamas’ Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands said Thursday during a radio interview on Guardian Radio 96 .9 FM. Numbers could drastically change this afternoon, he said.
“The public need to prepare for unimaginable information about the death toll and the human suffering. ”
“ Make no bones about it, the numbers will be far higher than 23, ”he said. “It is going to be significantly higher than that. And it’s just a matter of retrieving those bodies, making sure we understand how they died. It seems like we are splitting hairs, but not everyone who died, died in the storm.”
“It’s going to be huge,” he said.
“We have four morticians in Abaco embalming because we have run out of coolers.”
Hurricane Dorian has killed at least 23 people in the Bahamas, according to Theo Neilly, the country consul general to Washington.
A former Coast Guard light station off the coast of North Carolina is offering a unique view of Hurricane Dorian’s power as the storm moves slowly northeast.
The Frying Pan Tower, 34 miles offshore in the Atlantic, is right in the storm’s path.
A camera on the tower’s helipad, some 85 feet above the ocean, is sending live video as the storm approaches.
You can watch the live videohereand read more about the towerhere.
After Hurricane Dorian ravaged the tiny island of Man-o-War Cay in the Abaco region of the Bahamas, nearly every structure is damaged. Many are completely destroyed.
CNN’s Paula Newton spoke to residents who are trying to figure out what to do next.
“We were overwhelmed by the trauma these people are feeling, and everything they have gone through and have yet to go through,” Newton said . Watch the clip below, andread more here.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for parts of New England, from Woods Hole to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts, and for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The area had previously been under a tropical storm watch.
Hurricane Dorian will not hit New England directly, with the center of the storm expected to pass about 120 miles to the east on Saturday morning. The expanding wind field is expected to bring gusty, tropical storm-force winds to the Massachusetts coastline.
The eye of Hurricane Dorian is expected to pass near or over parts of North Carolina during the next 12 to 24 hours, according theNational Hurricane Center.
“Tropical storm conditions are spreading along the coast of North Carolina, and hurricane conditions are expected to begin during the next few hours,” the NHC said in a 5 pm ETadvisory.
Dorian appears to have started to slowly weaken over the past 12 hours, the advisory said, and the storm is turning gradually northeastward. It is expected to continue weakening, while still remaining a powerful hurricane as it moves along the coast of the Carolinas.
“The center of Dorian is expected to move very near or over the coastline of the Carolinas and the southern Mid-Atlantic states,” the NHC said. “Residents of these areas should already be prepared for damaging winds, life-threatening storm surges, and flooding rains. It also appears that Dorian will affect portion of eastern Canada as a hurricane-force extratropical low.”
A tornado was seen in Wilmington near Pender County Fire Station 18 Along Highway 17 this morning.
The video was tweeted by the National Weather Service Wilmington. The tornado was moving near Sidbury Road around 6: 55 am ET.
Dorian is producing dangerous winds, storm surge and flooding across portions of the Carolinas , the National Hurricane Center said in its 4 pm ET update.
With maximum sustained winds at 110 mph, Dorian is still a Category 2 storm. It’s current location is about 55 miles southeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Approximately 252, 649 customers are without power in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina as of 4: 30 pm ET, according to poweroutage.us.
That includes an additional 4,
Customers since 3: 30 pm ET.
The bulk of the outages remain in South Carolina with238, 422 customers without powerreported. Of those customers, 131, 668 of them are in Charleston County.
In North Carolina, 6, 928 customers are without power, according to the website.
Georgia also has 7,
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