"Dorian" has raged in the Bahamas for more than 24 hours - and the balance is already devastating. At least five people were killed, as the Tourism Ministry announced on Monday. Rescue forces could not penetrate all areas yet.
The extent of the damage in the northern Bahamas was therefore not yet foreseeable. Up to 13,000 houses could be badly damaged or destroyed, warned the Red Cross on Monday.
On the northeastern Abaco Islands extensive flooding contaminated the sources of drinking water, it was said. Hubert Minnis, Prime Minister of the Caribbean archipelago, wrote on Twitter: "The devastation is unprecedented."
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Hurricane "Dorian": large-scale operation on the AtlanticThe winds of the worst hurricane since the beginning of modern records reached speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour and raged on Monday over the island of Grand Bahama, as the National Hurricane Center in Miami explained. The center of the storm moved westward toward the US coast at less than two kilometers per hour, leaving the Bahamas exposed to hurricane force for a long time.
Almost 400,000 people on the islands are affected by "Dorian"
Videos from the Abaco Islands, hit by the hurricane on Sunday, showed flooded streets, underwater houses, and fallen trees.
On New Providence, the most populous island in the Bahamas, which is also home to the capital, Nassau, there was a total blackout and flooding, according to local media reports. On Grand Bahama was also partially the power off. The airport in the largest city of Freeport is under water, wrote the local newspaper "The Tribune".
It has been 14 hours now with #Dorian in #Freeport #Bahamas and still this is the roof of a home in the morning. pic.twitter.com/6bWS9RSN8w
- Gilbert NMO Morris (@MorrisMedici) September 2, 2019The Bahamas consists of about 700 islands southeast of Florida. Inhabited are only 30 of them. Around 389,000 people live in the Bahamas. The hurricane lost some of its strength on Monday and was downgraded from category five to four. But it threatened to continue "catastrophic damage," said the National Hurricane Center.
The states of the US coast are preparing for the arrival of the storm
On Monday evening (local time) "Dorian" should come "dangerously close" to the coast of Florida and then turn off to the north near the coast. On the US coast is therefore to be expected with destructive winds, storm surges and floods, warned the meteorologists. If the storm deviates even slightly from the predicted path, he could still hit land and cause great damage, warned the meteorologists.
In the video: Space shots - "Dorian" is approaching the US
NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / REX
The state of emergency was already in place in Florida and the more northerly states of Georgia and South Carolina. Evacuations of the coastal regions with already started on Monday. There, around 800,000 people were to go to safety.
The travel company Tui brought German tourists to safety before the hurricane hit the Bahamas. Already on Saturday, provision had been made and the guests had left the island of Grand Bahama. It was less than ten tourists who were affected, as a spokeswoman for Germany's largest tour operator said on Monday in Hannover on request of the German Press Agency.