Washington DC, Sep 2: The second-strongest Atlantic storm on the recond, Hurricane Dorian, has hit the northern Bahamas along massive torrential rains, waves and sustained winds damaging homes, toppling electric infrastructures, and overturning vehicles.
The tempest’s breezes diminished somewhat to 265 kilometers for every hour on Monday as its westbound development slowed, in what forecasters stated would be a daylong ambush. Prior, Hurricane Dorian stirred over Abaco island with battering winds of 285 kilometers for each hour.
The tempest’s entry represents a “life-threatening situation”, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said.
Inhabitants detailed power blackouts, flooding, rooftops ripped off of structures and the devastation of docks as the eyewall of the tempest disregarded legitimately the island.
The property harm was “destroying”, said Joy Jibrily, executive general of the Bahamas’ service of the travel industry and aeronautics, however, no passings had been accounted for by early night on Sunday.
Footage coming from the #AbacoIslands shows some of the severe winds and rain coming from #HurricaneDorian pic.twitter.com/SB9vJLdbfy
— Met Office (@metoffice) September 1, 2019
The tempest made its second landfall at 2 pm (18:00 GMT) on the Great Abaco Island and was likewise expected to ignore Grand Bahama, the northernmost island in the nation, later in the day as it moved west at a slow 11km/h.
Authorities requested occupants to clear the two regions, making a few a minute ago supplications as the storm made landfall.
“We cannot stress the amount of devastation and catastrophic impact that Hurricane Dorian is expected to bring,” Shavonne Moxey-Bonamy, the Bahamas meteorologist chief, has said on Sunday.
According to Latrae Rahming, press secretary for ex-Bahamas PM’s office, “this storm could linger around until Tuesday evening, 4pm [20:00 GMT]”, leading to an extended period of massive waves, flooding, power outages and rain.
The tempest could cause ocean levels to ascend to six meters and winds may arrive at a speed of 340km/h, as per the NHC.
“We are hearing reports of entire destruction of homes … severe flooding, and key economic parts of the island are gone,” Rahming told Al Jazeera.
“The major concern right now is to save and preserve lives,” he added
The eye of #Dorian has made a second landfall at 2 pm EDT (1800 UTC) on Great Abaco Island near Marsh Harbour. Maximum sustained winds were 185 mph at the time. This is tied for the strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall on record with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. pic.twitter.com/O9hrotTTbS
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 1, 2019