Floridians, Georgians and Carolinians fled the Atlantic coast in droves on Monday as Hurricane Dorian plowed in their direction and officials downgraded the storm to a still-dangerous Category 4.
“The window to prepare is closing,” tweeted Peter Gaynor, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “If you are on Florida’s east coast, finish preparing & evacuate if local officials tell you to. Don’t tough it out — get out!”
FEMA was encouraging those on the coast to expect extreme winds and evacuate if instructed.
Mandatory-evacuation orders were in place for coastal communities in 11 Florida counties that make up nearly all of the state’s Atlantic coast.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Sunday ordered his state’s entire coastline to evacuate. The order, which took effect at noon Monday, affects 830,000 people.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ordered evacuations for his state’s coast, also effective at noon Monday.
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have all declared states of emergency ahead of potential landfall.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida closed at noon, with officials warning people to stay away.
“Please remember that the airport is not a shelter,” read a statement posted on the airport’s Twitter account. “The airport will reopen when it is safe to do so for our employees and passengers.”
Daytona Beach International Airport in Florida also announced closures beginning at 6 p.m.
Miami’s National Hurricane Center reported on Monday morning that Dorian’s maximum sustained winds clocked in at 155 mph, taking the extremely dangerous storm down a notch from a Category 5. Gusts hit a record 225 mph on Sunday.
The sustained winds ratcheted down to 145 mph by Monday evening, although the storm was expected to ravage the Bahamas through Tuesday morning. Experts predicted the eye would hover “dangerously close” to Florida’s east coast, where it was expected to swirl through Wednesday.
Moving at just 1 mph, the storm is expected to inch north through the week as it weakens but could still bring torrential downpours and flooding to coastal areas.
“Right now, it’s slowly starting to transition to a more northwest track,” said senior AccuWeather meteorologist Alan Reppert. “We’re expecting by Tuesday morning this will be moving almost northerly, paralleling the coast of central Florida through the outer banks of the Carolinas.”
Reppert said he expected Dorian to churn in the Atlantic before making landfall in North Carolina Thursday night or Friday morning.
“We’re looking at [the hurricane] to make landfall at the outer banks of North Carolina,” he said. “That area will likely be affected the most in the United States.”
Reppert predicted Dorian would be down to a Category 1 by the time it hits North Carolina.
“We’re looking at it, and expecting it to slowly weaken as it moves along the coast,” he said.
“But it’s still a hurricane. It can bring wind gusts of over 80 to 90 miles per hour in addition to some coastal flooding. We’re still not out of the woods yet for North Carolina, or anybody in the coastal US.”
North Carolina officials say they expect less rain or flooding from Dorian than they got last year from Hurricane Florence, which was blamed for 45 deaths and estimated to have caused $22 billion in damage.
While it will miss the brunt of the storm, the Northeast should still see some rain and stronger winds, according to Reppert.
New York City can expect about a half-inch of rain going into the weekend and gusts topping out at 20 or 30 mph, he said.
“In southern New Jersey, there might be more substantial rain, on the 1-2-inch side of things, but we’re not expecting that to come into the city area,” Reppert added.
As of Monday evening, Dorian was creating a strong storm surge along the Florida coast, including showers, thunderstorms and churning seas.
“At the coastline though, through Florida through the Northeast here, we are seeing some rip currents and stronger currents,” Reppert said.
With wire services