CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Hurricane Dorian was pounding the Carolinas with winds and rain Thursday, leaving a trail of destruction and flooding behind as it slowly moved north.
The Category 2 hurricane picked up speed and was traveling at 10 mph with sustained winds up to 105 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. EDT update. The eye of the storm was about 45 miles southeast of Myrtle Beach.
"The center of Dorian will continue to move close to the coast of eastern South Carolina for the next several hours, and then move near or over the coast of North Carolina (Thursday night) and Friday," according to the NHC.
As the storm continued to trek north, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster lifted his evacuation order for Jasper, Beaufort and Colleton counties, areas of the Lowcountry that the storm had passed.
Evacuation orders were still in effect for Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties, as Dorian was forecast to hit the Grand Strand region.
"We are still battening down the hatches in the other five (coastal) counties, and we want everybody to be alert," McMaster said at a news conference.
Flash flooding and storm surges remain the greatest threats caused by Dorian, the hurricane center tweeted.
More than 230,000 power outages were reported by coastal South Carolina customers Thursday, and most were in the Charleston area, where more than 120,000 people had lost power.
Dozens of roads were flooded, and watches and warnings for tornadoes, flash floods and storm surge were growing north of Myrtle Beach into North Carolina.
A 98 mph wind gust was recorded on the South Carolina coast at 3 p.m., according to the hurricane center.
Tornadoes began to form on the northern edge of the storm just after dawn, including two reported in Horry County near Myrtle Beach, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun News.
Multiple tornadoes were also reported in North Carolina. (The storm was about 100 miles south of Wilmington, according to the hurricane center's 3 p.m. update.)
A waterspout ripped through Emerald Isle about 9 a.m., destroying multiple mobile homes. A tornado touched down in Brunswick County, "leaving a trail of damage approximately 10 miles long near Calabash and Sunset Beach," according to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's office.
A funnel cloud was also recorded on video about 7 a.m. in Pender County near Fire Station 18, the National Weather Service tweeted.
As the damage and flooding mounted, evening curfews were announced in multiple communities near the North Carolina coast, and a daytime curfew began at noon Thursday in Southport, N.C., "until further notice," according to the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office.
"Conditions are deteriorating and with confirmed tornadoes in the area, it is simply not safe to be out," Brunswick County officials said on Facebook.
Coastal communities in South Carolina are expected to get 6 to 12 inches of rain Thursday, with isolated areas of 15 inches, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In North Carolina, predictions of rainfall in excess of 10 inches continued to grow Thursday, with nearly all coastal counties expected to get 10 to 15 inches of rain, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Heavy rainfall is predicted to fall far from the eye of the storm, the hurricane center tweeted.
While Dorian is expected to slowly weaken in the next few days, it will continue to be a "powerful hurricane" as it moves up the Carolinas coast, according to the NHC's 5 p.m. update.
Even if it never makes landfall, the storm can affect areas far inland with tropical storm-force winds that extended 220 miles out from Dorian's eye at 5 p.m., according to the hurricane center. Hurricane force winds extended 60 miles out.
A video tweeted by Live5News reporter Paola Tristan Arruda at 1:15 a.m. showed Charleston's famous North Market Street had become a river through the historic downtown, as emergency lights flickered on buildings.
Charleston had more than 50 road closures early Thursday, many due to flooding and others due to high winds bringing down trees and power lines, according to the city's website.
A tree crashed into a North Charleston home just before 5 a.m., but the damage could have been worse if the little boy whose room was demolished hadn't been sleeping in another room, WCSC reported.
In North Carolina, mandatory evacuations were in place for barrier islands. Coastal counties near the bays, coastal rivers and sounds also called for residents to evacuate near the coast.
Dorian is expected to bring deadly storm surge, flooding and tornadoes to the coast through the day Thursday as it heads toward the Outer Banks.
Forecasters have not predicted a potential area of landfall on the Carolinas, but suggest it could cross onto land at any point.
Coastal flooding was expected to reach 4 to 8 feet above normal levels from the Savannah River in South Caroline north to Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks, the National Hurricane Center said.
"The surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves. Surge-related flooding depends on the how close the center of Dorian comes to the coast, and can vary greatly over short distances."
North Carolina's state medical examiner reported the state's first Dorian-related death occurred Monday, when an 85-year-old Columbus County man "fell off a ladder while preparing his house for the storm."
At least three of the 20-plus deaths attributed to the storm have involved men falling off ladders as they prepared for the storm or tried to remove trees, according to The Weather Channel. Most of the deaths occurred in the Bahamas.
