The storm ground nearly to a halt over Grand Bahama Island, about 120 miles off the coast of Florida, slowing to 1 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters also inched the storm’s much-monitored cone of uncertainty eastward, sparing parts of Orlando from the center of the hurricane’s projected path. While forecasters are predicting that the eye may not reach the Florida coast, they cautioned that it still could. Either way, strong winds are all but certain to disrupt life in that region.
West Palm Beach residents also could begin to feel tropical-storm-level winds (at least 39 mph) as soon as Monday morning, and a hurricane warning has been issued for about 140 miles of Florida’s east coast, from the Jupiter inlet to the northern edge of Brevard County. The hurricane’s outer rain bands began pounding Palm Beach County on Sunday night and continued into Monday morning.
As of Monday morning, Hurricane Dorian continued to thrash the Bahamas, where Louby Georges, the director of international affairs for Human Rights Bahamas, said at least one friend had run out of drinking water and others had left tearful voice messages for loved ones.
Dozens of worried families posted pleas for information about their loved ones on social media after losing contact for hours at the height of the storm. The weather center advised people on the island to remain in their shelter until conditions improved, warning that it could take several hours.
Videos on social media showed water rising around houses and devastating scenes of decimated homes, with roofs sheared from buildings and insulation strewn about the floor.
South Carolina and Georgia governors ordered evacuations.
Officials in South Carolina and Georgia are growing increasingly anxious about the storm’s path toward their coastlines and have ordered many costal residents to evacuate. Dorian is now projected to approach those two states as a major hurricane, and strong winds could reach Georgia by Tuesday.
“We know that we cannot make everybody happy, but we believe that we can keep everyone alive,” Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina said at a news conference, announcing that residents in portions of eight counties must begin evacuating by noon Monday.
North Carolina’s governor also declared a state of emergency. State officials warned that heavy rain could cause life-threatening flooding between Wednesday night and Friday and that there was a possibility for tornadoes.
Norma Lemon, the owner of a Caribbean-themed restaurant on South Carolina’s coast, has evacuated three times in the past few years because of several hurricanes. She said Sunday that she was near tears at the thought of leaving her restaurant in Mosquito Beach again.
“It just feels like here we go again with this one, like it’s not going to be good, you know?” she said.
South Carolina could receive between 5 and 10 inches of rain, with isolated areas inundated with up to 15 inches.
A Florida utility company has assembled its largest response team ever.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has said for days that coastal residents should expect to lose power.
Florida Power and Light Co., which serves about 10 million residents, announced that it had assembled 16,000 employees and contractors and asked them to be ready to respond to outages around the state.
“We’ve assembled the largest prestorm restoration workforce in company history,” Eric Silagy, the company’s chief executive and president, said in a statement.
He added that the team would “work around the clock to restore power safely and as quickly as possible.”
As of Monday morning, there were no substantial power failures in the state.
This article originally appeared in
.