Hurricane Dorian was one of the most powerful storms to ever hit land in the Atlantic as it pummeled the Bahamas with record-breaking winds on Sunday.
Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sunday afternoon, wreaking havoc on the islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama with sustained wind speeds of 185 mph and some gusts of up to 220 mph.
Those wind speeds tied the record set by the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which battered the Bahamas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
Video and photos on social media show the storm flooding Abaco Islands, lifting roofs off houses, and causing widespread destruction.
—National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 1, 2019
According to Reuters, Dorian is also the strongest hurricane ever to hit the northwestern Bahamas.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Hurricane Allen in 1980 was the most powerful hurricane in recorded history in the Atlantic basin, with sustained wind speeds of up to 190 mph. But it weakened before it made landfall.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis called Sunday the "worst day of my life" and noted that homes on the island were only built to withstand winds as strong as 150 mph.
"This is a deadly storm and a monster storm," he said. "One that we've never seen in the history of The Bahamas, with wind velocity as high as 180 mph, with gusts in excess of 200 mph."
On Sunday, the hurricane claimed its first victim, an 8-year-old boy who reportedly died in the Abaco Islands, according to local news channel EyeWitness News.
As of 11 a.m. Eastern Time Monday, Dorian had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph), making it a Category 4 storm.
It's expected to continue to pound Grand Bahama Island, and slowly crawl west at toward Florida's coast.
More than 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. But it remains unclear whether Dorian will make landfall in the US. Experts predict that the storm will "scrape" the US East coast but will likely remain offshore.
