Hurricane "Dorian" has reached the Bahamas. With wind speeds of up to 295 kilometers per hour, he first hit the island of Abaco on Sunday. The cyclone had been upgraded to the highest category five and threatens to cause "catastrophic destruction" in the Bahamas.
Abaco has taken refuge in schools, churches and other shelters. Residents reported blackouts, fallen trees, impassable roads and destroyed boat docks.
"The wind howls like we've never heard before," said Silbert Mills, 59, of the Bahamas Christian Network, who is staying with his family in a house on Abaco.
AP
People in an emergency shelter on Grand Bahama
The authorities of the Bahamas had until recently urged the citizens to go to shelters and higher places. Almost 400,000 people live in the island state.
It's the biggest hurricane ever hit by the archipelago since the beginning of modern records, the US hurricane center reported. The storm is moving very slowly forward and will probably rage over the Bahamas for several hours.
In the US, many people are worried about which course "Dorian" will take afterward. The storm could weaken again in the coming days on the way to the US East Coast, but will remain a dangerous hurricane, it was said.
The hurricane center had imposed a tropical storm warning on parts of the east coast of the US state of Florida. Meteorologists predict that the storm will turn north on Monday night or Tuesday off the coast to the states of Georgia and South Carolina.
However, according to the latest forecast, "Dorian" is so close to the coast of Florida that the strength of a tropical storm can almost be expected from Miami to Orlando.