Hurricane Dorian hits northern Bahamas with staggering 180 mph winds

Hurricane Dorian unleashes “catastrophic conditions” Sunday as it hits the northern Bahamas, lashing the low-lying island chain with devastating 180 mph (285 kph) winds, the most intense in its modern history.

Residents of the Abaco Islands closest to the storm are warned to “seek elevated shelter immediately,” as US forecasters predict a towering storm surge of 18 to 23 feet (about 5.5 to 7 meters).

Many Abaco islands residents are reported to have opted to ride out the monster hurricane rather than heed government warnings to evacuate.

The Nassau Guardian quotes local resident Troy Albury as saying that 150 people stayed behind in Guana Cay, in the center of the Abaco Islands, to face the storm’s fury. Only eight left on the last ferry out, he says.

Power went out as the storm approached, a resident of Man-o-war Cay in the Abacos tells AFP.

“Catastrophic conditions occurring in the Abacos Islands,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center says in a bulletin at 1500 GMT.

The eye of the Category 5 hurricane was still 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Abaco Islands, but the slow-moving hurricane’s core was expected to move directly over Great Abaco, and possibly also Grand Bahama Island later Sunday and Monday, US forecasters say.

The NHC says Dorian had become “the strongest hurricane in modern records for the northwestern Bahamas.”

— AFP