The storm, a Category 2 hurricane, was about 115 miles east-northeast of Jacksonville, Florida, by 2 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said, and was headed north-northwest at about 9 mph paralleling the coast.
Meteorologists warned residents of shore communities from Port Canaveral, Florida, to the North Carolina-Virginia border that they faced “a danger of life-threatening inundation from rising water” within the next 36 hours, and areas farther north in Virginia could also be affected. In some parts of North and South Carolina, the storm surge could reach 5 to 8 feet.
The storm’s heavy rains — 5 to 10 inches along the Carolina coast, with 15 inches possible in some spots — could also cause dangerous flash floods.
Dorian is expected to continue moving northward off the Florida and Georgia coasts through Wednesday night, and then gradually veer to the northeast. Dorian’s center could be close to the Carolinas from Thursday through Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters expect little change in the storm’s strength as it continues its northward roll. By the time it is expected to brush by Wilmington, North Carolina, early Friday, forecasters say it will probably still have winds as strong as 90 mph.
The storm is predicted to track close to Charleston, South Carolina, by Thursday afternoon. Gov. Henry McMaster has issued a mandatory evacuation for all of Charleston County, which has a population of more than 400,000.
About one-third of the 830,000 people ordered to leave coastal counties in South Carolina have already evacuated, McMaster said Tuesday.
— Trump said on Wednesday that Florida had been “very, very lucky, indeed.”
“Our original chart was that it was going to be hitting Florida directly,” President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office as he held up a forecast map showing an earlier projection of Dorian’s path. “And it took a right turn, and ultimately, hopefully, we’re going to be lucky.”
— Dorian left devastation in its wake in the Bahamas
As Hurricane Dorian pulled away from the Bahamas, relief workers, medical personnel, pilots and others gathered at a private terminal of the Nassau airport on Wednesday amid boxes of supplies, anxiously awaiting permission from the government to fly to devastated areas and provide assistance.
But with most of the runways on the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama — the islands most heavily pummeled by the storm — flooded or covered in sand, it was difficult to deliver help or even assess the damage wrought by the storm. In addition, the government has given priority to helicopter evacuations.
“It is frustrating,” said Wes Comfort, director of operations for Heart to Heart International, a Kansas-based group. “There are people who want to help and professionals who know how to help.”
Dorian made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane on Sunday, then lingered, pummeling the northern islands of the Bahamian archipelago for more than three days. At least seven people have died, including children, government officials said, adding that the toll is expected to rise.
Despite the limited access to the islands, pilots have conducted flyovers revealing scenes of absolute devastation. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to unrecognizable fields of rubble, houses were crushed into splinters and boats were tossed into heaps like toys.
The Bahamian prime minister, Hubert Minnis, was able to go on a reconnaissance mission over Abaco on Tuesday afternoon, though storm conditions still prevented flying over Grand Bahama.
“People need mostly food, security and shelter,” Minnis said in brief comments to reporters when he returned.
— A man getting his home ready for the storm has died in North Carolina
An 85-year-old man fell off a ladder on Wednesday while he was preparing his home for the storm, and died from his injuries, Gov. Roy Cooper announced at a news conference. It was the first reported storm-related fatality in the state.
Cooper asked residents in areas of the state under evacuation orders to leave. “It is not worth putting your life, or the life of first responders at risk,” he said. He and other emergency management officials urged anyone who had not yet finished preparing for the storm to do so immediately. “We will not underestimate the damage this storm can cause,” the governor said at a news conference.
With the state facing its third hurricane in three years, Cooper added, “please don’t let familiarity get in the way of good judgment.”
— Jacksonville was wary but appears to have been spared the worst
Jacksonville, tucked into the northeastern corner of Florida where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic Ocean, suffered flooding downtown during Hurricane Irma two years ago.
Some gauges along the river, which is up to 5 miles wide in places, showed water levels just below minor flood stage. But the city has been spared any repeat of Irma so far.
Tropical storm-force winds scattered debris across city’s streets on Wednesday, and there were power losses in the area, affecting about 1,500 customers at 2:30 p.m., according to JEA, the area’s community-owned electric utility company. Officials said that if sustained winds were 40 mph or higher, bridges would close.
And at noon, about one hour before high tide on Jacksonville’s shoreline, a lifeguard saved a woman who was knocked over and pulled into the current. The sheriff’s office then repeated its warning not to go to the beach or waterfront. Lifeguards, however, remained on duty.
Shortly after that rescue, Mayor Lenny Curry said on Twitter that others had to be removed from a beach.
Schools in Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, and several surrounding counties were closed through Thursday.
— Forecasters are tracking two more Atlantic storms, Fernand and Gabrielle
Dorian is not the only storm that the National Hurricane Center is monitoring. In the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Fernand is pushing northwest at about 6 mph, toward a likely landfall south of the Rio Grande Wednesday night.
With sustained winds near 50 mph, Fernand is expected to strike hardest in Mexico, but will also bring gusty winds to South Texas and the lower Texas coast, with rainfall totals between 2 and 4 inches through Friday in most areas, according to the forecast.
Far away in the eastern Atlantic is Tropical Storm Gabrielle, the season’s seventh named storm. That one is about 1,300 miles southwest of the Azores, and does not appear at this time to pose a threat to any land, the center said.
September is usually the busiest month of the storm season.
This article originally appeared in
.