Residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks brace for Dorian

WILMINGTON, N.C. — 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-kilometre-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 centred about 40 miles (64 kilometres) 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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Associated Press reporters Meg Kinnard in Charleston, South Carolina; Russ Bynum in Tybee Island, Georgia; Skip Foreman in Charlotte, North Carolina; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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For more of AP’s coverage of Hurricane Dorian, go to: https://apnews.com/Hurricanes

Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press



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