NASSAU (Bahamas): Hurricane Dorian left stretches of the Bahamas looking as if they had been carpet bombed, and was regaining strength as it ground up the US Atlantic coast, possibly making landfall later yesterday in South Carolina. In the United States, South Carolina was preparing for a record storm surge, potentially reaching a height of 2 metres at the popular vacation destination of Myrtle Beach, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said in an advisory.
About a foot of rain will drop on flood-prone Charleston, S.C. and many parts of the coasts of the Carolinas yesterday and today, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre in College Park, Maryland.
“It’s pretty substantial,” he said. “It’s already raining heavy in Charleston and up and down the coast,” he said early yesterday. Dorian is predicted to move near or over the coast of South Carolina later yesterday and then North Carolina overnight, forecasters said. At 2am yesterday, Dorian was about 170km south of Charleston, South Carolina, the NHC said.
It had strengthened to regain its status as a Category 3 storm late on Wednesday with winds of 185 kph, after passing over warm waters which drive hurricane intensity, the NHC said.
The NHC issued a storm surge warning that covered the whole length of the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, extending to Hampton Roads in southern Virginia. More than 2.2 million people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have been ordered to evacuate, although Florida has avoided a direct hit. – Reuters
