Bahamas braces as monster Hurricane Dorian heads for US mainland

Miami, Sept 1 (AFP/APP):Hurricane Dorian roared Saturday towards the Bahamas as the island chain braced for a devastating direct hit, before the monster storm churns up the US coast from Florida towards the Carolinas.

Barreling in from the Atlantic Ocean, the extremely dangerous Category 4 storm is set to hit parts of the northwestern Bahamas hard on Sunday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest bulletin at 2100 GMT.

Further ahead the NHC said Dorian would “remain a dangerous hurricane through 5 days,” but exactly where — and how hard — it will strike the US coast looked increasingly uncertain after the storm shifted course overnight, apparently sparing Florida the worst.

In Grand Bahama, businesses were boarded up and thousands of people have evacuated the predicted storm path with forecasts of devastating winds, life-threatening surf conditions, and storm surges of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters).

Yasmin Rigby, a resident of the island’s main city Freeport, told AFP “people are moving out of the east and west ends, fearing the worst.”

Shelves in grocery stores were “just about cleared,” Rigby said, and most homes and businesses had been shuttered since Friday.