MIAMI _ After assaulting the Bahamas for more than a day and killing at least five people, Hurricane Dorian weakened to a Category 2 storm as it began to move northwest after assaulting the island chain for more than a day.
Dorian was now carrying winds of 110 miles per hour, as its winds continued to batter Grand Bahama, according to the 11 a.m. advisory released Tuesday by the National Hurricane Center.
The storm's movement was still not fast _ just 2 miles an hour _ but it was expected to pick up steam after stalling overnight, much to the agony of Bahamians. The forecast still predicts that Dorian will not directly hit Florida, instead staying well off shore, moving parallel to the coast and approaching Georgia shores by early Thursday morning.
The danger of hurricane conditions is still not over for much of the Florida coast. The storm may have weakened but Dorian has grown in size _ with hurricane-force winds extending 60 miles from the center of the system, and tropical-storm-force winds whipping up to 175 miles from the core.
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. A hurricane warning remained in place for that stretch of Florida.
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 latest 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.
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.
The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance was mobilizing aid for the Bahamian government, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Relief efforts for the devastated Bahamas have already begun, including with the help from some of the Bahamian communities in South Florida. "We are in urgent need of help," Bahamas consul general Linda Mackey said Tuesday morning at a news conference alongside county leaders, including Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
Even though Dorrian 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.
Broward County will get sustained winds of up to 35 miles on the coast through Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said, with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. 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.
At the beach in Boca Raton, shutters remained up on many of condos lining the beach. People still milled about the sand, watching the swelling seas.
The monster storm about 100 miles off shore didn't stop Chris Bal, 31, who drove up from Fort Lauderdale to surf. "I'm thankful it didn't come this way. It's not fun to go through storms. We dodged a bullet," he said. "And I drove up because I knew the wind was coming from the west so there wasn't too much danger."
Watching from the lifeguard stand was Alice Pearce, accompanied by her mini-Golden Doodle named Percy. Over the past week, Pearce considered evacuating, as she did two years ago during Irma, when she fled to North Carolina.
"But there was no point," Pearce said. "During Irma it was a hellacious drive. I just came to see the waves, they're kind of fun to watch. I had to prepare, but I'm glad we didn't evacuate."
