The Bahamian prime minister announced that there are five confirmed fatalities from Hurricane Dorian as slowly moves over the chain of islands, leaving destruction in its wake.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Monday that the deaths are from the Abaco Islands, the first part of the country where the hurricane, then a Category 5, made landfall. Minnis said that there are people in Great Bahama island, where the brunt of the storm is now focused, that are in distress.
“We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” he said, noting that many homes and buildings across the northern part of the country have been destroyed by the storm, which is packing sustained winds of 145 mph as of 5 p.m. Monday.
Minnis said that rescue crews would be sent out to respond to calls as soon as weather conditions allow, although the storm was moving at a sluggish 1 mph most of Sunday and as of a 6 p.m. National Hurricane Service update, is stationary.
The projected path of the storm takes it slightly further west and northward, grazing large swaths of Florida and the eastern seaboard. Although Doiran has weakened from a high of 185 mph, it has expanded in size.
Dorian expected to move slowly W to WNW overnight
into early Tue, then turn to the NW by late Tue, with a turn to the NE by Wed night. This track will bring the core of Hurricane Dorian dangerously close to the FL coast late Tue thru Wed eve & the GA & SC coasts Wed night & Thu. pic.twitter.com/TlZ7V1a7wn— NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) September 2, 2019
