North Carolina faces 'long night' as Dorian's Bahamas toll rises to 30

CHARLESTON/MARSH HARBOUR, United States - North Carolina braced for a "long night" of strong winds and driving rain as Hurricane Dorian moved near the US state's coast on Friday after devastating the northern Bahamas, where it left at least 30 people dead and thousands homeless.

Authorities in the state of Florida - which was largely spared by the storm - blamed six more deaths on the hurricane, US media reported, though they occurred as the victims were preparing for the storm's arrival or were evacuation-related.

"Dorian should remain a powerful hurricane as the center moves near or along the coast of North Carolina," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, or NHC, said on Friday morning, after downgrading it to a Category 1 storm.