September 1, 2019

Catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Dorian Makes Landfall in the Bahamas

And it’s on track to hit Florida or other southeastern states early this week.

NOAA

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Hurricane Dorian made landfall Sunday afternoon at Elbow Cay, Abacos in the Bahamas. The Category 5 storm came ashore with wind speeds up to 185 miles per hour and gusts up to 220 miles per hour.

The National Hurricane Center is reporting that Dorian is now tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest Atlantic hurricane landfall on record. Scientists don’t think that climate change will  increase the frequency of hurricanes, but it will make them more dangerous. As the planet warms, we can expect to see more intense rainfall associated with storms and more destructive storm surge, which is when a storm’s wind pushes water inland.

Footage of the hurricane shows trees bending from the force of the winds.

Storm chasers in the Bahamas are reporting that the boards used to shield windows are being pried off by the winds.

And it’s not just the wind, the storm surge is also inundating communities. 

The storm, which was expected to hit Puerto Rico but abruptly changed course, is expected to impact the southeastern United States next week. But as the island was preparing for the storm earlier this week, Donald Trump took to twitter to attack Puerto Rico and its leaders and to repeat the lie that the territory has received $92 billion in Hurricane Maria relief aid.

Despite Hurricane Maria reaching Category 5 status, Trump said that he’s never heard of a storm in that category.

Watches and warnings have been posted along the eastern Florida coast, while Georgia and the Carolinas remain on alert. 

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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