Hurricane Dorian has struck the Carolinas with flooding and strong winds, downing trees and whipping up tornadoes after it ravaged the Bahamas for days.
A threat to life remained as the centre of the record-breaking storm was expected to move near or over the coast of North Carolina overnight and on Friday, forecasters warned.
The howling west flank of Dorian soaked the US states of North and South Carolina on Thursday. In low-lying parts of Charleston, floodwaters rose to a foot (30 cm) or higher, officials said.
Dorian's eye was about 30 miles (48 km) south of Cape Fear, North Carolina, last night with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (160 kph), the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre said.
The death toll from Dorian stood at 30 in the Bahamas on Thursday evening, officials told CNN, but the final toll is expected to be much higher. "Let me say that I believe the number will be staggering," Health Minister Duane Sands told the Nassau Guardian.
Governors in the North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency, closed schools, opened shelters, readied national guard troops.
They urged residents to take warnings seriously, as fresh images of the devastation brought by the storm in the Bahamas earlier this week circulated in the media.
At least 70,000 Bahamians needed immediate humanitarian relief after Dorian became the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation at the weekend.
In the Carolinas alone, more than 900,000 people had been ordered to evacuate their homes. It was unclear how many did so.
Dorian whipped up at least three tornadoes in the region, officials said. One in North Carolina damaged scores of trailers at a campground in Emerald Isle, but no one was injured, North Carolina's News & Observer reported.
At least four storm-related deaths in the US have been reported. Three people died in Orange County, Florida, during storm preparations or evacuation, according to the Orange County mayor's office. In North Carolina, an 85-year-old man fell off a ladder while barricading his home for Dorian, the governor said.
More than 210,000 homes and businesses were without power in South Carolina and Georgia early on Thursday, according to local electric companies.
A Royal Navy helicopter rescued a British person and three children who were trapped beneath rubble for several days after Dorian hit the Bahamas.
The Wildcat helicopter was flying over Great Abaco Island to assess the damage when its crew were called to help a casualty on an eight-mile stretch called Elbow Cay.
The Royal Navy said its crew pulled the injured person, a British citizen, from the rubble and took them back to Mounts Bay to receive emergency medication before airlifting them to the capital Nassau.
The team also rescued a woman, her two children and a baby, according to a statement.
Dorian was named the most powerful storm ever to hit a Caribbean island after it reached sustained winds of 185mph and gusts of up to 220mph.
