As many as 13000 houses severely damaged in hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas, peeling off roofs and snapping power lines as rising floodwaters threatened to engulf houses, and forecasters said the storm would creep closer to the U.S. coast, where more than a million people were ordered evacuated.

Hurricane Dorian has caused "extensive damage" across the Bahamas, the Red Cross said Monday, warning that as many as 13,000 houses may have been severely damaged or destroyed.

"We don't yet have a complete picture of what has happened," Sune Bulow, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Emergency Operation Centre in Geneva, said in a statement.

"But it is clear that Hurricane Dorian has had a catastrophic impact," he said, adding that "we anticipate extensive shelter needs, alongside the need for short-term economic support, as well as for clean water and health assistance."

The storm, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, was stalled over Grand Bahama Island, packing maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour (249 kph) and moving at 1 mph (2 kph), the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory at 11 a.m. EDT (1600 GMT). Dorian was expected to pound Grand Bahama for much of the day.

Strong winds and high surf were already being reported along Florida’s east coast as the hurricane was about 110 miles (177 km) from West Palm Beach, the center said, adding that Dorian would come dangerously close to the state Monday night through Wednesday evening.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged coastal residents to heed evacuation orders. “Get out now while there’s time and while you have fuel available,” he said in a news conference from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee.

There were no immediate estimates of casualties as Dorian covered the northwestern islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama with twisted metal and splintered wood.

Dorian was downgraded to a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale late Monday morning. But the NHC said it would remain a powerful hurricane for the next couple of days.