COCOA BEACH, Fla. _ Millions of people along the southeastern coast of the United States braced for Hurricane Dorian on Monday as the massive storm stalled over the northern Bahamas, wreaking devastation as it slammed waist-high waves into kitchens and living rooms, tore down power lines and ripped the roofs off homes.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told reporters that at least five people had died in the Abaco Islands and that officials had received calls from people in severe distress on nearby Great Bahama Island.
"We are in the midst of a historic tragedy," he said.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm, which was downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane Monday from Category 5, was still "extremely dangerous" as it hovered about 25 miles northeast of Freeport.
After pummeling the Bahamas on Sunday as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record _ maximum sustained winds reached 185 miles per hour with some gusts of up to 220 _ it continued to buffet the northern stretches of the archipelago with top sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.
"On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will continue to pound Grand Bahama Island into Tuesday morning," the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. "The hurricane will then move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late Tuesday through Wednesday evening."
As Dorian approaches the Florida coast, it is expected to slowly curve toward the northwest and north, its core narrowly skirting the coastline of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas without coming ashore.
But forecasters warned that Dorian's exact track remained uncertain: Just a slight deviation to the left of the current forecast and it could make landfall on Florida's east coast.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands in the northwestern Bahamas and a 250-mile portion of the central Florida coast. A hurricane watch is also in place for a nearly 300-mile stretch from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., up to South Carolina's South Santee River.
"A slight wobble West would bring this Cat 5 storm on shore with devastating consequences," U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Monday on Twitter, noting that the core of Dorian was expected to come within 20 to 30 miles of Cape Canaveral. "If you're in an evacuation zone, get out NOW."
Early Monday, the small city of Cocoa Beach, located on a 6-mile-long barrier island south of Cape Canaveral, was virtually a ghost town after a hurricane warning and mandatory evacuation went into effect.
All along the main coastal highway, A1A, seafood stores, tiki bars and surf shops were boarded up. Only one gas station still had gas and there was no line.
"It seems like the storm's been out there for a month," Jenny Wolverton, a longtime Cocoa Beach resident, said as she stood with friends on the edge of the shore as a cascade of gray waves with white caps rippled near her sandals.
After making three trips to Publix supermarket to stock up on supplies, Wolverton had become tired of waiting. "The kids are home and they've got nothing to do but eat."
As the storm continued to batter the Bahamas, the National Hurricane Center urged residents on Grand Bahama Island to stay indoors and not leave their shelter when the eye of the storm passed over. Strong winds could increase rapidly, catching them off guard.
Government officials continued to hunker down with residents in a government complex, which became a makeshift shelter for islanders.
"From all accounts, we have received catastrophic damage," Bahama's foreign minister, Darren Henfield, said from the complex in a video posted by ZNS Bahamas. "We have reports of casualties. We have reports of bodies being seen. We cannot confirm those reports until we go out and have a look for ourselves."
Already, Dorian has left entire neighborhoods of the Bahamas underwater.
"In some areas, you cannot tell the difference as to the beginning of the street or where the ocean begins," Minnis said Sunday at a news conference at the headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency.
On Grand Bahama, a life-threatening storm surge, with large and destructive waves, would raise water levels by as much as 23 feet above normal tide levels, the National Hurricane Center said. Meanwhile, water levels were expected to slowly subside on the Abaco Islands, which bore the brunt of the storm over the weekend.
Videos shared by residents of Great Abaco showed homes without roofs and SUVs bobbing in floodwater.
"My baby's only 4 months old," a woman wailed in one video. She stood at the top of a staircase Sunday looking down at her destroyed apartment complex as the wind lashed and the floodwaters rose.
Some of her neighbors, she said in the video, tried to swim across the water to another house.
"But the water just took them," she said. "Some people, they didn't get to make it."
"Please pray for us," she cried. "I'm begging y'all; pray for us."
The Nassau Guardian later reported that the woman was Gertha Joseph, 34. In a telephone interview, she told the newspaper that her neighbor in Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' largest town, helped put her son in a plastic carrier and escorted her across the water to a safer building _ the only one left standing on her street.
"Everyone is in the living room right now and the roof is about to lift," Joseph told the newspaper. "I'm just going to keep praying."
Across the U.S. Southeast coast, millions of residents hoped the eye of the hurricane would not veer too close to the shore and they would be spared massive damage.
Even if the storm's center does not make landfall, forecasters and officials warn that it will bring powerful hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surge and flash floods. A massive storm, Dorian's hurricane-force winds extend as much as 45 miles from its center and its tropical-storm-force winds stretch out as far as 140 miles.
Water levels could begin to rise well in advance of the arrival of strong winds, the National Hurricane Center warned, and residents should heed local officials.
A wide area of the Southeast coastline is under evacuation orders.
All Georgia residents east of I-95 were ordered to evacuate by noon Monday and by the evening Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order authorizing the state's Department of Defense to provide up to 2,000 Georgia National Guardsmen. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster ordered a mandatory evacuation of the state's entire coast, an area that covers more than 800,000 people.
In Florida, residents of a string of counties from Palm Beach County to the Georgia state line are under mandatory evacuation orders if they live on barrier islands, low-lying, flood-prone areas or in mobile homes.
More than 100 shelters are open across Florida, road tolls have been suspended across the state, and more than 2,200 Florida Guardsmen have been activated to state active duty for Hurricane Dorian response operations, with a further 2,000 Guardsmen in a supporting role. Seven hospitals across the state's coast are under evacuation orders.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has warned residents across the coast that they should expect to lose power. As researchers predict that more than 4.5 million people along Florida's mid- to southeastern coast could lose power, Florida Power and Light Co. said it had 16,000 employees and contractors assembled across the state ready to respond to outages.
"The fact that it's taking so long definitely adds to the anxiety because you're in a hurry-and-wait mentality," said Mike Schwarz, one of the owners of Fishlips Waterfront Bar & Grill, a popular spot on the water at Port Canaveral, where cruise ships come in.
Schwarz said the storm had cost his business about $60,000 so far and he worried for his staff, who were losing hours and tips.
"Could we be open right now? Maybe," he said. "At the end of the day, I'm a born and raised Floridian and I've been through plenty of hurricanes. It's part of my life and culture and it just sucks."
