WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Dorian (all times local):
2:25 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian is producing tropical storm-force winds in southeastern Massachusetts as it speeds toward eastern Canada.
The Category 1 storm was around 170 miles (275 kilometers) southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, early Saturday, and around 490 miles (790 kilometers) southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Top sustained winds remain at 90 mph (145 kph) with higher gusts. While some weakening is forecast, Dorian is expected to bring hurricane conditions to portions of Nova Scotia later Saturday before becoming a powerful post-tropical cyclone.
The storm is moving northeast near 25 mph (40 kph) and some increase in forward speed is expected through Sunday.
The tropical-storm conditions affecting parts of Massachusetts are expected to spread into Maine by Saturday afternoon.
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12 a.m.
The government of the Bahamas says the death toll from Hurricane Dorian has risen to 43 and will likely increase as searchers discover more bodies.
Health Minister Duane Sands confirmed the death toll in a WhatsApp message to The Associated Press on Friday night.
The announcement came as search and rescue teams tried to reach some communities isolated by flood waters and debris after the hurricane bashed the northern Bahamas earlier this week with 185 mph (295 kph) winds that obliterated countless homes.
An array of organizations, countries and companies has mobilized to send in supplies.
At least four deaths in the Southeast U.S. were also blamed on Dorian. All were men in Florida and North Carolina who died in falls or by electrocution while preparing for the hurricane.
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11 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian is speeding up toward eastern Canada.
In an 11 p.m. Friday advisory, the National Hurricane Center says Dorian is about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Nantucket, Massachusetts and traveling northeast at 25 mph (40 kph).
Forecasters expect parts of eastern Nova Scotia to experience hurricane-force winds late Saturday.
The Category 1 storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph).
A hurricane warning is in effect for eastern Nova Scotia from Lower East Pubnico to Avonport.
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8:30 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian is continuing to churn northeast, away from North Carolina and toward eastern Canada.
In an 8 p.m. advisory, the National Hurricane Center says the storm is about 275 miles (443 km) south-southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and travelling northeast at 24 mph.
The Category 1 storm continues to have maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph).
Forecasters expect Dorian to bring hurricane-force winds to parts of Nova Scotia on Saturday night.
Water levels in North Carolina are expected to continue to recede Friday night.
A hurricane warning is in effect for eastern Nova Scotia from Hubbards to Avonport.
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7 p.m.
Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio says the U.S. government-run aid agency has formally requested that the Department of Defense provide heavy-lift aerial support to bring in desperately needed aid to the Abaco islands in the Bahamas.
Rubio tweeted Friday that their first task will be finding an open airfield.
Earlier Friday, Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott flew with the U.S. Coast Guard to the Bahamas Friday along with Gov. Ron DeSantis to look at the damage.
Rubio praised private relief efforts, but said only military transportation had the capability to deliver the massive amounts of water, food, diesel and medicine needed.
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7 p.m.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says help has been dispatched to Ocracoke Island, and that food and water is on the way to those stranded there.
Cooper also said on Friday that assessments are underway to determine the damage that Hurricane Dorian left behind.
First responders will airlift anyone who may have been injured, and others who need to leave the island. A shelter in Washington County will accommodate people from Ocracoke who need temporary housing.
Damage assessments are underway in southeastern North Carolina, and emergency management personnel are prepared to move supplies into the areas that need them.
Cooper plans to tour Emerald Isle and Carteret County on Saturday to take a look at damage caused by the hurricane.
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6:30 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian caused a significant oil spill at a petroleum storage terminal on Grand Bahama Island.
Satellite images taken Friday show a slick of black oil seeping from the South Riding Point terminal.
Equinor is the facility's owner. In a statement, it said its initial aerial assessment showed the seaside terminal had sustained damage and oil has been observed on the ground outside of the onshore tanks. The company said it was "too early" to estimate how much oil might have spilled into the surrounding environment, but that there were "no observations of any oil spill at sea."
The terminal's tanks can hold 6.75 million barrels of crude oil and condensate. The facility was shut down Saturday as the Category 5 storm approached the island.
Equinor said it has mobilized oil spill response resources that will arrive "as soon as possible."
Equinor is an international oil company that is majority-owned by the Norwegian government.
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6:20 p.m.
North Carolina National Guard helicopters have ferried dozens of emergency and damage assessment workers to evaluate what's happened on a fragile barrier island that experienced widespread flooding from Hurricane Dorian.
Gov. Roy Cooper said that Ocracoke Island was without power late Friday and many homes and businesses were still underwater. He says about 800 people had stayed on the island to wait out Dorian. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths there so far.
Cooper says points north along the Outer Banks also received damage from Dorian, with its storm surge and high winds. Southeastern North Carolina was getting back to normal, as reported damage was less there.
Otherwise, the number of power outages in eastern North Carolina has been falling. They stood at about 130,000 as of late afternoon.
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6:20 p.m.
The publisher of a newspaper on North Carolina's Ocracoke Island says there's no power on the island and that water has been shut off because of problems at the treatment plant.
Connie Leinbach publishes the Ocracoke Observer. She says Leinbach said sheriff's deputies and other rescue personnel performed at least two rescues from attics. She said the U.S. Coast Guard was also called in to help a man who was having problems with his oxygen.
She also said the night started out as a typical storm, much like a nor'easter. She said she felt some gusts and then went to bed. By 7 p.m., she says water started coming up the road and rose higher than it had during Hurricane Matthew.
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5:35 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian continues to churn off the North Carolina coast, but it's heading further into the Atlantic Ocean, prompting forecasters to lift hurricane and tropical storm warnings south of the Virginia-North Carolina border.
The 5 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center showed Dorian about 330 miles (531 km) south-southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It was moving to the northeast at 24 mph (39 kph).
Maximum sustained winds are at 90 mph (149 kph). The hurricane center says some strengthening is possible during the next 24 hours. After that, forecasters expect Dorian to become a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds Saturday night or Sunday as it comes close to or passes over eastern Canada.
A storm surge warning has been discontinued north of the Virginia-North Carolina border. A hurricane warning is in effect for eastern Nova Scotia from Hubbards to Avonport.
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4:50 p.m.
Florida's U.S. senators say Bahamian authorities need to make specific requests to the U.S. government-run aid agency before the U.S. Department of Defense can assist the Bahamas with Hurricane Dorian relief efforts.
At a Friday news conference in Miami, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said he had spoken to Bahamian authorities and believes the request to the U.S. Agency for International Development may be sent soon.
Scott and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio flew with the U.S. Coast Guard to the Bahamas Friday along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to look at the damage.
Rubio said part of the holdup has been the slow assessment of what is needed. He says that the passing of the storm "will free up some northern command assets."
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4:50 p.m.
Environmental regulators in the Carolinas are receiving scattered reports of failures at municipal wastewater treatment plants and livestock waste lagoons in danger of overflowing in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said it was tracking reports of 44 incidents as of Friday afternoon, nearly all of them east of Interstate 95. Of those, only an ongoing sewage spill at the wastewater treatment plant in the town of Mount Olive was classified as "urgent action needed." It was estimated that more than 75,000 gallons of sewage had spilled so far into the Northeast Cape Fear River.
Thirteen permitted animal operations were reporting problems, including hog farmers who said their waste pits were nearly full. But there were no reports of significant breaches or spills like those that occurred last year during the record-shattering rains from Hurricane Florence.
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4:30 p.m.
Officials on North Carolina's Ocracoke Island are initiating efforts to evacuate residents who need to leave.
The island is accessible only by boat or air and has seen significant flooding due to Hurricane Dorian.
A statement from Hyde County on Friday says aircraft will take residents to Dare County. From there, they will be driven to a Washington County shelter equipped with food, medical supplies and power.
Officials say people seeking to leave the island should get in touch with the county's emergency operations center. Priority will be given to the elderly, anyone with medical needs or other special circumstances.
The county also says it is hoping to have the ferry routes evaluated on Saturday, adding that as soon as possible, it will perform evacuations by ferry.
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4:30 p.m.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has lifted the remaining evacuation orders for Berkeley, Charleston, Dorcheter, Georgetown and Horry counties.
That means residents who left the state's coastal areas ahead of Hurricane Dorian can return home Friday. Residents in Beaufort, Colleton and Jasper counties were allowed to return Thursday afternoon.
The Post and Courier reports McMaster cautioned returning residents that they could face blocked roads, detours and lengthy travel times.
McMaster and Department of Transportation Secretary Christy Hall were surveying the damage Friday from a National Guard helicopter.
Hall says she doesn't anticipate the need to close roads due to river flooding or take emergency measures to keep them open. That's unlike what happened last September, when torrential rains dumped by Hurricane Florence inundated towns along the Waccamaw and other rivers.
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3:15 p.m.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis spoke to a crowd gathered at the port in Great Abaco, using the help of a Creole interpreter for a group of Haitians awaiting evacuation after Hurricane Dorian .
He told the Haitians, whose community has suffered intentionally set fires in recent years, they'll be treated with respect and there will be no discrimination.
Minnis urged families with children to keep their children in school when they reach Nassau, adding that the government will keep providing food and health care.
Minnis said he was satisfied with the speed of the government's response, noting that the U.S. Coast Guard was helping. But he also said officials still need medical equipment and supplies and heavy equipment to go through rubble.
He pledged that search and rescue teams are making every effort to find bodies in Abaco. Officials say 30 people have been confirmed dead in the Bahamas, but the toll is sure to rise.
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2:30 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio says the Bahamas immediately needs the U.S. Department of Defense's resources to deliver aid in the Abaco islands, saying distribution is impossible in the region that was devastated by Hurricane Dorian .
Rubio said via Twitter on Friday that defense resources need to be approved "to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the two U.S. senators from the state traveled to the Bahamas on Friday to see the damage.
Rubio also said the main hospital in Freeport, Bahamas, needs supplies and that fuel tanks in Grand Bahama flooded causing oil to spill over the top.
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2:10 p.m.
New hurricane warnings and watches have been issued for eastern Canada as Hurricane Dorian crawls up the East Coast.
Tropical Storm warnings have also been issued for parts of Maine, Massachusetts and Delaware.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says hurricane conditions are expected in eastern Nova Scotia on Saturday.
The storm is moving away from North Carolina's coast after making landfall Friday morning on the Outer Banks. Dorian's center is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and is moving northeast near 21 mph (34 kph). The hurricane center says Dorian is expected to increase its forward speed through Saturday night.
Earlier this week, the storm slammed the Bahamas, killing at least 30 people and obliterating countless homes.
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1:35 p.m.
The United Nations said Friday that the International Organization for Migration is providing 1,000 tarps to replace roofs stripped from homes by Hurricane Dorian on the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the migration office stressed that the priority right now is search and rescue operations. He says that after everyone has been rescued and the wounded safely evacuated, the agency will focus on providing temporary shelter for those who lost their homes.
Dujarric said the World Health Organization reports it's focusing on providing clinical care, food supplies, safe drinking water and sanitation to survivors.
Officials say 30 people have been confirmed dead in the Bahamas, but the toll is sure to rise.
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1:35 p.m.
Early in-person voting for a closely watched North Carolina congressional race has been extended in counties that shuttered voting sites due to Hurricane Dorian .
The State Board of Elections says voting in Cumberland, Scotland, Robeson and Bladen counties has resumed Friday for the 9th Congressional District special election and will continue there through Saturday. Early voting in other 9th District counties further inland that didn't halt balloting will end Friday as scheduled.
State law gives the board's executive director emergency powers during a disaster. Democrat Dan McCready, Republican Dan Bishop and two other candidates are running in the 9th District.
More early-vote extensions are being considered for the coastal 3rd District special election, where all counties closed sites early due to Dorian.
Election day is Tuesday for both races.
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1:10 p.m.
A Florida cruise ship plans to bring back Bahamians who want to evacuate the hurricane-ravaged country after disembarking in Grand Bahama island with supplies, first responders and volunteers.
Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line's CEO Oneil Khosa told The Associated Press more than 500 volunteers signed up to travel to help storm victims. The company says those traveling need to work in health care or construction.
Khosa says Bahamians who want to leave the island to go to Florida would have to be properly documented and get to Freeport on Friday. The ship is expected to return to the Port of Palm Beach early Saturday.
The company canceled its regular cruise trip to turn it into a humanitarian mission. The Grand Celebration ship has capacity for 1,800 travelers.
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12:30 p.m.
Hurricane Dorian has given the U.S. mainland only a glancing blow after wreaking havoc on the Bahamas, where more than 30 people have been killed.
In Grand Bahama, a long line has formed at a cruise ship that docked to distribute food and water to survivors.
Among those waiting was Wellisy Taylor, a 65-year-old housewife. She said Bahamians had not received help yet from their government.
She says islanders know that the government will take care of "its people," but she expects help won't come overnight.
She says Bahamians have to band together and share what they've got with each other. She says that's how she grew up, that's the Bahamas she knows. She says "we're going to have to go right back to that same Bahamas. All for one and one for all."
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12:20 p.m.
All evacuation orders in South Carolina have been lifted as waters from Hurricane Dorian recede and the storm continues up the Atlantic coast.
Gov. Henry McMaster ordered the remaining evacuation orders lifted in areas of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester, Georgetown, and Horry counties. Orders in Beaufort, Jasper and Colleton counties were lifted on Thursday.
McMaster had ordered the evacuation of South Carolina's entire coast earlier this week as Dorian churned its way toward the U.S. mainland. All lanes of Interstate 26, the main thoroughfare connecting the city of Charleston to the state's interior, were pointed westward to quickly evacuate as many residents as possible. State officials said 441,000 people pulled out ahead of Dorian.
Now they can come back after Dorian gave the state what turned out to be only a glancing blow.
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11:40 a.m.
South Carolina's governor is flying around the state to survey any damage from Hurricane Dorian .
Gov. Henry McMaster's office says the governor is visiting emergency operations centers in Horry, Georgetown and Charleston counties Friday. Late Friday afternoon, the governor planned to talk to reporters after meeting with officials during his final stop in North Charleston.
Dorian sideswiped the Carolinas with shrieking winds, tornadoes and sideways rain Thursday as it closed in for a possible direct hit on the dangerously exposed Outer Banks. At least four deaths in the Southeast were blamed on the storm.
Twisters spun off by Dorian peeled away roofs and flipped trailers, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses were left without power.
On Friday morning, residents and crews fanned out around downtown Charleston, scooping up the branches and leaves that littered the centuries-old streets.
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11:40 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian has a little namesake, born as the storm was sideswiping Florida's Atlantic Coast.
Tadashi Dorian Davis made his debut two weeks early Monday at AdventHealth DeLand hospital in central Florida. His mother, Kay McCloud, says she was praying the baby wouldn't come during the hurricane.
The baby weighed 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms), 8 ounces (226 grams).
Dr. Hussain Esmail-Rawji tells The Daytona Beach News-Journal that four babies were born at the hospital Monday. He says the baby is healthy.
McCloud says they had planned on Trey as the baby's middle name, just like his father. She says the baby's dad, Anthony Davis, suggested Dorian.
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11:10 a.m.
North Carolina emergency officials remain worried about storm surge and flash flooding from Hurricane Dorian as it churns up the Atlantic coast. But preliminary damage reports from where the hurricane has departed are better than feared.
Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday there's "significant concern about hundreds of people trapped" on Ocracoke Island, located south of Cape Hatteras and accessible only by boat or aircraft. He says waters are rising there and rescue crews are ready to go when the storm clears.
Cooper says reports of the storm's aftermath south toward Wilmington are better than anticipated, but warned Dorian is still raging at the Outer Banks and in northern counties.
More than 4,500 people spent the night in nearly 80 shelters statewide.
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10:30 a.m.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says hundreds are stranded on Ocracoke Island as Hurricane Dorian moves up the U.S. East Coast.
Cooper told reporters Friday morning that rescue teams are ready as soon as they can move in. He says local authorities are telling people to get to the highest point in their home.
Dorian came ashore Friday morning at Cape Hatteras on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
At the start of the week, the storm slammed the Bahamas, killing at least 30 people and obliterating countless homes. From there, it swept past Florida and Georgia before sideswiping the Carolinas on Thursday with tornadoes that peeled away roofs and flipped recreational vehicles.
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10 a.m.
Ocracoke Island resident Leslie Lanier says some residents on the thin strip of land on North Carolina's coast have had to climb into their attics because of high water from Hurricane Dorian .
Lanier said via text message Friday morning that some first floors have been flooded. But she added that the water level has started to drop. Lanier owns a bookstore on the Outer Banks island. She said she's OK but "nervous and worried."
Dorian came ashore Friday morning at Cape Hatteras on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
At the start of the week, the storm slammed the Bahamas, killing at least 30 people and obliterating countless homes. From there, it swept past Florida and Georgia before sideswiping the Carolinas on Thursday with tornadoes that peeled away roofs and flipped recreational vehicles.
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10 a.m.
On Friday morning in the Bahamas, several hundred people waited behind a yellow cloth tape at the port in Grand Abaco, many of them holding small children and valuables they tried to save after Hurricane Dorian devastated the area.
Some had duffel bags piled in shopping carts while others carried tools. Some in the crowd had already placed their names on evacuation lists at shelters and arrived as early as 1 a.m., hoping for transportation to the capital of Nassau.
There were no government-organized evacuations yet, but the Royal Bahamas Defense Force was helping people board a 139-foot (42-meter) ferry that had come to pick up its employees and had room for an additional 160 people.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Bahamas and countless homes were destroyed.
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9:35 a.m.
Ocracoke Island resident Leslie Lanier says the North Carolina island in the Outer Banks is "flooding like crazy" as Hurricane Dorian rakes the Carolinas.
Lanier said by text message Friday morning that the water is in homes on the island and she expects the water to keep rising.
She said she's safe for the time being, but added that she has been on Ocracoke for 32 years and not seen anything like this. Lanier owns a bookshop on the island at the southern end of the Outer Banks. She moved books and gifts off the ground in anticipation of the storm, which made landfall Friday morning at Cape Hatteras.
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9 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian has come ashore at Cape Hatteras on North Carolina's Outer Banks, marking its first U.S. landfall since it slammed into the Bahamas days ago.
Dorian sideswiped most of the Southeast seaboard from Florida to Carolinas in recent days before its eye made landfall Friday morning.
At 9 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was moving northeast at 14 mph (22 kph).
On Thursday, Dorian raked the Carolina coast with howling winds and heavy rain, spinning off tornadoes and knocking out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Dorian is expected to accelerate as it moves off extreme southeastern New England sometime Friday night and early Saturday before a weekend approach to Nova Scotia in Canada.
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8:05 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian's center is near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, as it continues its crawl up the East Coast.
The storm's maximum sustained winds Friday morning are near 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm is centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west-southwest of Cape Hatteras and is moving northeast near 14 mph (22 kph).
Dorian hammered the Bahamas earlier this week, killing at least 30 people. But it swept past Florida at a relatively safe distance, grazed Georgia, and then hugged the South Carolina-North Carolina coastline. At least four deaths in the Southeast have been blamed on the storm.
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6:45 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian continues to scrape the North Carolina coast just offshore, with the worst weather hitting the Outer Banks.
The storm's strong winds and heavy rains early Friday knocked out power to about 194,000 homes and businesses in North Carolina.
PowerOutage.US reports 160,000 outages remain in South Carolina after Dorian scraped that state's coast Thursday.
Authorities haven't reported any major damage, but were waiting for daylight to make a more comprehensive assessment.
The center of the storm has remained off the North Carolina coast. A weather station on Cape Lookout recorded winds of 75 mph (121 kph) as the eye of Dorian passes less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away.
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6:38 a.m.
People who live in southeastern Virginia are beginning to lose their electricity as Dorian blows up the Atlantic Coast.
Dominion Energy reported on its website Friday that more than 7,000 people have lost power. Most of the outages are in the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Both cities border North Carolina and are home to hundreds of thousands of people.
The city of Norfolk is also reporting outages.
Much of Virginia's Hampton Roads region is already shut down in anticipation of the storm. Schools have closed. Mass transit has stopped running. And the area's large military bases are operating with only mission-essential personnel.
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5 a.m.
The eye of Hurricane Dorian is passing just east of Cape Lookout as the Category 1 storm skirts North Carolina's coast.
Sustained, hurricane-force winds are battering the southern Outer Banks, a 200-mile-long (320-kilometer-long) chain of low-lying barrier islands and spits off North Carolina. The center of the storm is around 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Cape Lookout and 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Cape Hatteras, further north in the Outer Banks.
Top sustained winds are near 90 mph (145 kph) and the storm is moving northeast at 14 mph (22 kph).
As of 5 a.m., the National Hurricane Center replaced a hurricane warning with a tropical storm warning from South Santee River to Little River Inlet in South Carolina. The storm-surge warning south of Surf City, North Carolina, has been discontinued.
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4:15 a.m.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami is reporting hurricane-force wind gusts along the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina.
A weather station at Cape Lookout on the southern end of the chain of low-lying islands recently reported a 10-minute average wind of 63 mph (101 kph), equivalent to a 1-minute sustained wind speed of 69 mph (111 kph). A wind gust of 75 mph (121 kph) was also reported, but the weather station inside the western part of Dorian's eye hasn't reported data since 3 a.m.
Dorian's center is around 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Cape Lookout, and around 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Cape Hatteras, further north on the string of barrier islands and spits.
The Category 1 storm's top sustained winds remain at 90 mph (145 kph) and the storm is still moving northeast at 14 mph (22 kph).
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3:10 a.m.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami is reporting hurricane-force winds "just offshore" Cape Lookout, part of the low-lying islands that make up North Carolina's Outer Banks.
The Category 1 storm is located around 25 miles (40 kilometers) south-southwest of Cape Lookout, and around 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Cape Hatteras, further north on the string of barrier islands and spits.
Top sustained winds remain at 90 mph (145 kph) and the storm is moving northeast at 14 mph (23 kph).
The storm is expected to weaken slowly over the next few days, but will likely remain a powerful hurricane as it moves along the coast of North Carolina.
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2 a.m.
Hurricane Dorian has weakened somewhat to a Category 1 storm, but forecasters say the threat posed to the southeastern U.S. coast hasn't abated.
Dorian is currently 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of Wilmington, North Carolina, and 30 miles (48 kilometers) south-southwest of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and moving northeast at 15 mph (24 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says that general motion is expected to continue, with an increase in speed through Saturday.
The center of the storm will move near or over the coast of North Carolina over the next several hours, before moving to the "southeast of extreme southeastern New England" on Friday night and Saturday morning and then across Nova Scotia.
A storm surge warning has been discontinued south of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, but flooding remains possible in parts of North Carolina depending on the tide and the storm's distance from the coast.
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1:40 a.m.
After triggering tornadoes in South Carolina, Hurricane Dorian is closing in for a possible direct hit Friday on North Carolina's Outer Banks, a string of low-lying islands.
On Ocracoke Island, near the southern end of the 200-mile-long (322-kilometer-long) string of barrier islands and spits, about half of the 1,000 residents have stuck around to face the storm.
Further north, Virginia was also in harm's way.
Overnight winds are expected to cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, and debris could block repair crews from accessing damaged line.
As of early Friday, Dorian was centered about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east-northeast of Wilmington, North Carolina and had weakened to a Category 1 storm. With maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph), Dorian was moving northeast at 15 mph (24 kph).
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An earlier version of this report incorrectly identified the International Organization for Migration.
