'Catastrophic' Dorian pounding Bahamas

Mandatory evacuations ordered in seven Florida counties including Palm Beach

In a slow, relentless advance, catastrophic Hurricane Dorian kept pounding the northern Bahamas early on Monday. One of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded left wrecked homes, shredded roofs, tumbled cars and toppled power poles in its wake.

The Category 5 storm's top sustained winds decreased slightly to 275 kilometers per hour as its westward movement slowed, crawling along Grand Bahama Island early on Monday at 4 km/h in what forecasters said would be a daylong assault. Earlier, Dorian churned over Abaco island with battering winds and surf during Sunday.

There was little news from the affected islands, though officials expected many residents to be left homeless. Most people went to shelters as the storm approached, with tourist hotels shutting down and residents boarding up their homes.

After days of nerve-wracking uncertainty surrounding the storm's path, the southeastern US states of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina finally ordered hundreds of thousands of coastal residents to evacuate.

"It's devastating," Joy Jibrilu, director-general of the Bahamas' Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, told The Associated Press. "There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure. Luckily, no loss of life reported."

Due to Dorian's slow movement, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami forecast that a "prolonged period of catastrophic winds and storm surge will affect the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island" on Sunday night. By Sunday evening, the storm's eye was moving over Great Abaco and was headed west at just 8 km/h.

The most powerful

When it hit the Bahamas, Dorian tied the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever known to come ashore, equaling the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before the storms were named, according to the Hurricane Center.

As Dorian slammed into the Bahamas, the storm was forecast to remain a hurricane for the next five days.

Millions of people from Florida to the Carolinas kept an eye on the slow-moving Dorian amid indications it would veer sharply northeastward after passing the Bahamas and track up the US southeastern seaboard.

Hurricane watches and warnings were issued on Sunday afternoon for parts of the Florida coast, where Dorian was expected to move "dangerously close" beginning from Monday night through Tuesday night, forecasters said.

Authorities warned that even if its core did not make US landfall, the storm would likely batter the coast with powerful winds and heavy surf.

Dorian hit the Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 297 km/h and gusts up to 354 km/h. The pummeling was expected to last for hours due to the storm's slow movement, "prolonging its catastrophic effects", the Hurricane Center said.

Dorian had sideswiped the Caribbean Sea last week without doing major damage.

The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 305 km/h winds. That storm did not make landfall at that strength.

"This will put us to a test that we've never confronted before," Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a nationally televised news conference. "This is probably the most sad and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people. I just want to say as a physician I've been trained to withstand many things, but never anything like this."

The storm slammed into Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands and then made a second landfall near Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island on Sunday afternoon.

Residents on Abaco posted video on social media showing floodwaters halfway up the sides of single-family homes with parts of the roofs torn off.

In Florida, at least seven counties issued mandatory evacuations for some residents, including those in mobile homes, on barrier islands and in low-lying areas.

Palm Beach County, the state's third most-populated county and home to US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, was among those with partial mandatory evacuations. Other counties announced voluntary evacuations.

"This looks like it could be larger than all of them," Trump said during a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

FEMA is moving food, water and generators into the Southeastern United States, said acting Administrator Peter Gaynor.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Sunday declared a state of emergency for his state to prepare for the hurricane.

AP and Reuters contributed to this story.