Hurricane Dorian news – live: Mass evacuations underway in Florida and Georgia as deadly storm approaches US coast

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Hurricane Dorian pounds relentlessly at Bahamas

Hurricane Dorian is devastating the Bahamas after the historic Category 5 storm parked over the island chain for multiple days, killing at least five people and leaving thousands of homes, buildings and an airport under feet of water.

“We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said. “The devastation is unprecedented and extensive.”

Hundreds of thousands of people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have meanwhile been ordered to evacuate before the storm rolls up the Eastern Seaboard, bringing the possibility of life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if Dorian’s heart stays offshore, as forecast. Several large airports announced closures and many flights were cancelled for Monday and Tuesday.

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Key Points

• Hurricane continues to batter northwest Bahamas
• Evacuations underway in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina

[3 September 2019 14:56 · Chris Riotta]

CNN is reporting numerous hospitals across Florida's east coast have begun evacuating patients. Here's more info on how to stay prepared:

[3 September 2019 15:20 · Chris Riotta]

It should also be noted that tropical storms could soon form as Hurricane Dorian continues pummelling the Bahamas and churns towards the United States amid mandatory evacuations -

[3 September 2019 15:30 · Chris Riotta]

Powerful Hurricane Dorian has been going nowhere because nothing high up is making it budge.

It may sound strange when talking about a storm that once had 185 mph (298 kph) winds, but it’s actually been too calm high in the atmosphere. While this has been horrible for the Bahamas, where the storm’s pounding has been relentless, it may help spare Florida a bit, meteorologists said.

Usually the upper atmosphere’s winds push and pull hurricanes north or west or at least somewhere. They are so powerful that they dictate where these big storms go.

But the steering currents at 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) above ground have just ground to a halt. They are not moving, so neither is Dorian.

After reaching record-tying wind speeds on landfall in the Bahamas, the storm just stalled. Its eyewall first hit Grand Bahama Island Sunday night, and 18 hours later part of the eye still lingered there, meteorologists said. The hurricane center late Monday called the storm “stationary” after several hours of crawling at 1 mph (1.6 kph).

AP

[3 September 2019 15:50 · Chris Riotta]

Here's video from the Bahamas right now where Hurricane Dorian has left streets so flooded folks are apparently driving jet skis through the storm surge -

[3 September 2019 16:10 · Chris Riotta]

Those who didn't evacuate from the Bahamas are sharing videos of the life-threatening winds and storm surge as the Category 5 hurricane churns over the island chain:

[3 September 2019 16:30 · Chris Riotta]

Here's video from the Grand Bahama International Airport during the historic Hurricane Dorian - 

[3 September 2019 16:54 · Chris Riotta]

Donald Trump has insisted he is right - and meteorologists are wrong - over his repeated claim Hurricane Dorian could strike parts of Alabama. 

Forecasters, including the government’s own National Weather Service, were forced to correct the US president after he warned in a tweet on Sunday morning that Alabama would “most likely” be hit by the record-breaking tropical storm, which is currently devastating the Bahamas. 

“Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east,” the NWS tweeted.

Three other states – Florida, South Carolina and Georgia – are all ordering part or full evacuations of their coastal areas and North Carolina has declared a state of emergency, but there are no evacuation orders in place in Alabama.

[3 September 2019 17:34 · Lily Puckett]

  ↵A 75-year-old woman has been evicted from the Miami apartment where she has lived for 28 years – just as other residents are boarding up homes ahead of Hurricane Dorian.

Maria Cazanes had her belongings tossed from her second-floor condo in the US city after her landlord claimed she was violating rules by keeping cats.

Police, who were there to serve the eviction notice, are understood to have watched on as the landlord's associates threw her belongings from the second-floor South Beach flat onto the street below.

Read more here:

[3 September 2019 18:30 · Lily Puckett]

Dorian is slowing moving away from the Bahamas, and has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm. New photos show more of the devastating damage the Bahamas felt. 

[3 September 2019 19:10 · Lily Puckett]

The first helicopter footage of Abaco, Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian is startling.

Here's AccuWeather's Jonathan Petramala with more context: