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Bloomberg
Hurricane Dorian menaced the US East Coast with devastating flooding and winds, lashing Florida after laying waste to the Bahamas in a brutal two-day battering that caused damage that may cost the islands billions of dollars.
The centre of the Category 2 hurricane was located about 90 miles (145 kilometres) east of Daytona Beach, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of about 105 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in public advisory at 5 am local time. Earlier, it reported bands of rain moving into northeast Florida and squalls in the region.
The storm is moving north-northwest at about 8 miles per hour and should move “dangerously close†to the Florida and Georgia coasts through this evening, with its center approaching the Carolinas by Thursday, according to the NHC. President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in North Carolina, clearing the way for his administration to coordinate disaster relief efforts as needed.
“Florida will likely dodge the worst impacts, although coastal areas will have long stretches of tropical-storm force winds later today and tomorrow,†said Todd Crawford, lead meteorologist at The Weather Co, an IBM business. The storm, though, could still make landfall north of Florida, he said. In the Bahamas, the government discontinued all tropical storm warnings, according to NHC.