Bahamas fears ‘staggering’ toll

The final death toll from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas could be “staggering,” a government minister has said as the storm lashed North Carolina in the US Friday with torrential rain and fierce wind.

Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told CNN Thursday that at least 30 people were killed in the storm, which caused what he called “generational devastation.”

An AFP team in the town of Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco on Thursday saw scenes of catastrophic damage with homes reduced to matchsticks, overturned cars, fields of jumbled debris, widespread flooding and beached boats.

Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane -- the highest on the five-level wind scale -- when it slammed into the northern Bahamas on Sunday, leaving a trail of immense destruction.

Thousands have been left homeless, while the United Nations said 70,000 were in immediate need of aid.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Friday downgraded Dorian to a Category 1 storm as it whipped the Outer Banks -- finger-like barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. It warned of life-threatening storm surges and dangerous winds, and said some areas have been hit with flash flooding.

It warned that although weakening, Dorian was still packing winds of 9150 kilometers per hour, with some areas of the Carolina coast forecast to get between six and 12 inches of rain.