MIAMI _ After assaulting the Bahamas for more than a day and killing at least five people, a stubborn Hurricane Dorian finally was "beginning to inch northwestward" Tuesday morning, and was expected to pick up steam for its trek parallel to the Florida coast.
Dorian remained a powerful Category 3 storm, packing winds of 120 miles per hour, as its southern eyewall continued to batter Grand Bahama, according to the 8 a.m. advisory released Tuesday by the National Hurricane Center.
The storm's movement was not fast _ just 1 mile per hour _ but it was expected to pick up steam after stalling overnight. The forecast still predicts that Dorian will not directly hit Florida, instead staying well off shore and approaching the Georgia coast by early Thursday morning.
Still, the Florida coast from Jupiter Inlet to Ponte Vedra Beach is expected to start feeling hurricane conditions Tuesday night as the storm passes off shore.
By Friday morning, at 2 a.m., the forecast has Dorian coming dangerously close to the shores of North Carolina, still as a hurricane. "Dorian is expected to remain a powerful hurricane during the next couple of days," the hurricane center wrote in its advisory.
Hurricane Dorian spent most of Labor Day parked over Grand Bahama, lashing the island with winds topping 145 mph and 12 to 18 feet of storm surge.
The ferocious storm ripped off roofs, flooded shelters and killed at least five people. Horrifying video shared on social media showed murky brown waters battering at people's windows, invading the first floor of their homes and, in one case, lapping at the floor of someone's attic.
Relief efforts for the devastated Bahamas have begun, including with the help from some of the Bahamian communities in South Florida.
The U.S. Coast Guard had already rescued 19 people from a medical clinic in Marsh Harbour in the Abaco islands, evacuating them by helicopter to Nassau. The Coast Guard said it was resuming its rescue efforts at dawn on Tuesday.
Even though the storm is not expected to directly hit Florida once it turns north, forecasters are still expecting rough weather on the central coast, said the National Weather Service's Derek Giardino at a press briefing in Tallahassee on Monday night.
Hurricane force winds will arrive in Martin and Brevard counties on Tuesday morning, and tropical-storm force gusts will exit out of Florida on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, he said.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for the coastal areas of 13 eastern counties which have opened 85 shelters, including 22 special needs shelters with 673 special needs clients.
