MIAMI – Hurricane Dorian stalled over the northern Bahamas on Monday, pounding the islands with heavy rains, storm surge and howling winds that could linger all day before the storm directs its rage toward the U.S. coast.

Dorian’s slow and powerful advance westward along the archipelago slowed to 1 mph while top sustained winds eased slightly to 155 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Dorian thus slipped from Category 5 to Category 4 – still a brutal storm.

“On this track, the core of extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian will continue to pound Grand Bahama Island through much of today and tonight,” the hurricane center said in an 11 a.m. advisory.

Power and communications outages made damage assessment difficult. The few videos that have emerged from the Abaco Islands show destroyed homes, flooded roads and residents pleading for help and payers.

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Florida and the U.S. East Coast remained a target. The storm will move “dangerously close” to the Florida east coast late Monday through Wednesday night, the center said. Dorian is forecast to turn toward the northwest, roaring parallel to Florida about 30 to 40 miles offshore, before continuing north along the East Coast deep into the week.

That gap remains right on the edge of delivering the worst of Dorian to the Florida coastline.

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NASA video shows hurricane Dorian as it passed over the Bahamas.
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President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency and was being briefed regularly about what he called a “monstrous” storm.

“I spoke with President Trump. He’s fully engaged in this,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Tuesday news conference. “He just reiterated that he’s going to provide any resources we need to weather Dorian.”

DeSantis said all coastal counties have issued evacuation orders, and 72 nursing homes have been evacuated. More than 4,000 members of the state National Guard have been called up, and power companies are prepared to dispatch 17,000 personnel to combat outages.

The hurricane center said wind gusts were in excess of 220 mph when the storm made landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday afternoon. The winds matched the a records set by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, which tore through the Florida Keys, killing more than 400 people in the days before hurricanes were given names.

“This is probably the saddest and worst day for me to address the Bahamian people,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. “We are facing a hurricane that we have never seen in The Bahamas. Please pray for us.”

The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 190 mph winds, though it did not make landfall at that strength.

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Dramatic video: Hurricane Dorian’s devastating force in the Abaco Islands, Bahamas

Dorian made landfall in Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas around noon Sunday, then made a second landfall near Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco at 2 p.m.

The raging winds wrought destruction and terrified islanders who sought shelter in schools, churches and other facilities.

“It’s devastating,” said Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. “There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure.”

Florida, Georgia, Carolina coasts

The storm was located about 110 east of West Palm Beach, Florida. According to a Monday advisory from the center, Florida’s east-central coast may see a “brief tornado” sometime Monday afternoon evening. 

After its brush with Florida, the hurricane is forecast to track near the Georgia and Carolina coasts late this week. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ordered mandatory evacuation of his state’s entire coast effective Monday. The order covers about 830,000 people, and State troopers planned to make all lanes on major coastal highways one-way heading inland.

“We can’t make everybody happy, but we believe we can keep everyone alive,” McMaster said.

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A few hours later, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, ordered mandatory evacuations for that state’s Atlantic coast, also starting at midday Monday.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned his state that it could see heavy rain, winds and floods later in the week.

“The time to prepare is now,” Coooper warned. “North Carolina must take this seriously.

Rodriguez and Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing:  Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY; Michael Braun and Frank Gluck, Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press; Amber Roberson, Tallahassee Democrat; Dan DeLuca, Treasure Coast Newspapers; Associated Press