Hurricane Dorian Moving Away From Bahamas Towards Florida
Hurricane Dorian is moving away from the Bahamas and moving to the northwest towards Florida at 6 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 110 mph and is currently 105 miles east of Vero Beach, Florida. It is expected to speed up as it moves towards the northwest tonight and a turn more to the north is forecast by tomorrow evening.
The Washington Post reports that Dorian has now been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, but notes that it can still cause serious damage. The Post also notes that “hurricanes do not always behave as forecast. Despite being Earth’s most massive and powerful storms, they’re remarkably sensitive to internal and external hiccups. These storms can wobble east or west as they move generally north, for example, like a spinning top on a table. It wouldn’t take much of a wobble to bring the core of the storm ashore over Florida, especially along the Space Coast, where land featuring expensive infrastructure juts out a few more miles to the east of the rest of the Peninsula. On the other hand, if the storm stays on course, the coast may only experience tropical storm conditions.”
Fox News reports that the hurricane had a devastating effect on the Bahamas; they quoted Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane as saying that more than 13,000 houses, or about 45 percent of the homes in Grand Bahama and Abaco, were believed to have been severely damaged or destroyed. U.N. officials said more than 60,000 people on the hard-hit islands will need food, and the Red Cross said some 62,000 will need clean drinking water.
