Tracking Hurricane Dorian: Storm Moves To U.S. After Battering Bahamas

With Meghna Chakrabarti

The wrath of Hurricane Dorian as the monster storm moves northeastward. We have the latest news and developments from reporters and hurricane watchers.

Morgan Chesky, NBC News correspondent. (@BreakingChesky)

Lindsey Kilbride, reporter for WJCT, the NPR member station serving northeast Florida and the Jacksonville metropolitan area. (@lindskilbride)

CBS News: "Hurricane Dorian threatens millions in U.S. after pummeling Bahamas" — "Hurricane Dorian started to move northward toward the U.S. Tuesday morning after stalling over the Bahamas and causing widespread devastation. Millions of people in Florida and the Southeast were anxiously watching the storm, a powerful and menacing threat sitting miles off the Florida coast.

"Dorian was a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph as of 11 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane slammed into the Bahamas as a Category 5 — as powerful as a hurricane can get.

"It unleashed massive flooding, shredding roofs, hurling cars and forcing rescue crews to take shelter. By late Monday afternoon, the storm's top sustained winds fell to 130 mph — down from 185 mph hours earlier — as it crept along on its path of destruction. Storm surges in some places raised water levels more than 20 feet above normal."

The Atlantic: "Hurricane Dorian Is Not a Freak Storm" — "After a second long night, Hurricane Dorian is still, improbably, lingering over the Bahamas. Since hitting Great Abaco as a Category 5 on Sunday afternoon, the storm has stubbornly refused to move, crawling along at just seven miles an hour, then five, then one, then virtually standing still as it unleashed “pure hell” on the island nation. Though the storm has been downgraded to a Category 3 and is now forecast to skirt past the coastline of the southeastern United States, it still threatens to bring strong winds, storm surge, and flash flooding to Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

"By the numbers alone, Dorian is an impressive beast. It made landfall in the Bahamas with 185-mile-an-hour sustained winds, which tied the landfall record set by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. Since records began in 1851, only one storm in the Atlantic has had more powerful winds at any point during its trajectory: Hurricane Allen, which killed hundreds of people in the Caribbean in 1980. Dorian is also the most powerful storm to ever hit the Bahamas directly; when Hurricane Andrew made landfall there in 1992, it blew at 161 miles an hour. Dorian’s winds also sped up by about 35 miles an hour over the space of just nine hours on Sunday; it’s the only storm of its caliber to ever intensify so quickly.

"All that power has had dramatic consequences in the Bahamas. At least five people have died there, reportedly including an 8-year-old boy. The Red Cross said that as many as 13,000 homes might have been destroyed. Once search-and-rescue teams can venture out and anecdotal reports can be confirmed, the official death toll and damage report are likely to rise."

Grace Tatter produced this segment for broadcast.