Bahamas: Hurricane Dorian has made landfall in the north-western Bahamas as a monster category five storm with sustained winds of up to 180mph (285km/h).
The “extremely dangerous” storm is the strongest hurricane on modern record in the area, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says.
The storm furiously destroyed and blew away roofs in the Abaco Islands, local authorities said.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a nationally televised news conference that a “deadly storm and a monster storm” was battering the region. The islands’ homes are built to withstand winds of at least 150 mph (241 kph), but the 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge is higher than the average roof.
The hurricane is moving westward with a relatively slower speed of about 11 kmph and is likely to atrike the US East Coast on Monday evening.
A state of emergency has been declared in Florida and the state government has urged US President Donald Trump to declare a pre-landfall disaster for all of the state’s 67 counties.
