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Hurricane Joaquin batters the Bahamas
Hurricane Joaquin has ripped off roofs, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as the Category 4 storm dumped torrential rains across the eastern and central Bahamas on Friday.
Some people remained trapped in flooded homes, but no fatalities or injuries have been reported so far, according to Captain Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency. He told reporters that officials lost communication with a couple of islands overnight and said power was knocked out in some areas.
Officials asked Bahamians to stay on alert as the slow-moving storm roared through the country where schools, businesses and government offices were closed.
Joaquin had maximum sustained winds of 215 kph (130 mph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. As of 8 a.m. EDT Friday, the storm was located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north-northeast of Long Island. Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 50 miles (85 kilometers) and a hurricane watch was in effect for Bimini and Andros Island.
The storm is expected to turn north later Friday as it moves away from the Bahamas overnight, with some weakening expected on Saturday. The National Hurricane Center had the storm tracking farther away from the U.S. East Coast than originally predicted, seeming to ease the threat for a region already suffering flooding and heavy rains from other storms.
Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Joaquin is expected to pass well offshore from the eastern seaboard.
“We no longer have any models forecasting the hurricane to come into the East Coast,” he said. “But we are still going to have some bad weather.”
In addition, the entire East Coast will experience dangerous surf and rip currents through the weekend, he said.
“Joaquin is going to generate a lot of wave energy,” Knabb said, adding that Bermuda might issue a tropical storm or hurricane watch, depending on Joaquin’s path.
The hurricane has been battering islands including San Salvador, Cat Island and Rum Cay and unleashed severe flooding on others, including Acklins, where some of the roughly 565 residents were trapped in their homes. Officials also were investigating reports that eight to 10 people were caught by the storm on the normally uninhabited Samana Cays.
