The Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC has extended its advisory for Hurricane Dorian to other nearby states in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
They based it on the weather models that Dorian may pass and make landfall in Georgia or South Carolina on Thursday morning, as a weaker Category 2 storm, before moving into North Carolina.
Dorian is expected to make landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday and Florida on Tuesday.
According to a tweet by Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, islands of Abaco are already experiencing the tropical storm force winds, as of 1a.m. there.
Abaco now experiencing tropical storm force winds as #HurricaneDorian2019 approaches, and will begin to feel hurricane force winds later this morning. Grand Bahama expected to feel tropical storm winds at 9am and hurricane force winds at 7pm. Praying for everyone’s safety. pic.twitter.com/v7KB5IqZ6O
— Dr Hubert Minnis (@minnis_dr) September 1, 2019
As of this writing, the hurricane was already upgraded to Category 5 by the National Hurricane Center. The storm now packs 160 miles per hour sustained winds.
NEW: #Dorian is now a category 5 #hurricane with 160 mph sustained winds. The eyewall of this catastrophic hurricane is about to hit the Abaco Islands with devastating winds. Next advisory: https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB pic.twitter.com/oFspgN0XbT
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 1, 2019
The Philippine Embassy reiterated its earlier advisory to Filipino communities along the path of Hurricane Dorian to monitor the movement of the storm, undertake all necessary preparations, and heed the warnings of local officials.
An estimate of about 231,000 individuals of Filipino origin is in the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
“The Philippine Embassy will continue to monitor developments and coordinate with the Filipino and Filipino-American communities in these areas.”
