Dorian back to Category 3, batters southeast US seaboard

By Meg Kinnard The Associated Press

5 years ago

Andrew Parker watches the latest on Hurricane Dorian from the bar at Huc-A-Poos pizza restauran ... — Andrew Parker watches the latest on Hurricane Dorian from the bar at Huc-A-Poos pizza restaurant, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019, in Tybee Island, Ga. Parker said he’s been through eight hurricanes in his lifetime as a resident of Tybee. And like the others Parker said he plans on riding Dorian out at his home on the island. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Large waves crashed onto the beach of Tybee Island, Ga., Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 as Hurricane Dorian moved closer to the Georgia coast. (Casey Jones/Savannah Morning News via AP)

Lin Henderson gets help as she moves her belongings from a Dare County Transportation Bus to another bus as she evacuates from Hatteras Island on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Mandatory evacuation plans have been put in place ahead of the potential threats from Hurricane Dorian. (Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Brian Taylor, captain and owner of the fishing charter boat Carolina Girl, leaps from the boat to the docks in Hatteras Village after setting the boat’s lines on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019 to handle the possible high winds, flooding and severe tides that could come from Hurricane Dorian. (Steve Earley/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

An evacuee rests on a cot in an American Red Cross shelter at R.B. Stall High School on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019, in North Charleston, S.C. Officials estimate around 300 people have sought shelter here as Hurricane Dorian approaches the South Carolina coast. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Hurricane Dorian, back to a Category 3 storm, has begun raking the Southeast U.S. seaboard, threatening to inundate low-lying coasts from Georgia to southwest Virginia with a dangerous storm surge after its deadly mauling of the Bahamas.

Dorian had crashed into the island nation as its strongest hurricane on record earlier this week, but has weakened greatly since — down from a Category 5 to a Category 2 storm before increasing again late Wednesday. Dorian still boasts dangerously high winds of 115 mph as it is sideswiping the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas.

In South Carolina, more than 1,500 people have sought refuge in 28 shelters as authorities worried about the historic and vulnerable port city of Charleston. Dorian was centered overnight about 105 miles south of Charleston and moving north, just offshore.

Earlier this week, Dorian left wide devastation and at least 20 dead in striking the northern Bahamas.