CHARLESTON, South Carolina (REUTERS) – After its deadly rampage across the Bahamas and brush of the Florida coast, Hurricane Dorian pounded the coastal Carolinas on Thursday (Sept 5), sowing fear and worry from the elegant streets of downtown Charleston to the jigsaw puzzle that is North Carolina’s barrier islands.

Though thousands of residents had evacuated the region at the urging of government officials, many others stayed behind, where they endured tornadoes, power failures, flooding and tree-toppling winds. In low-lying Charleston, the water was knee-high in some streets, though by late afternoon, Shannon F. Scaff, the director of emergency management, said that the city of 136,000 had largely avoided major catastrophe.

“We got hit more than we have in other storms, but anybody familiar with Charleston would probably agree that we got very fortunate yet again,” Scaff said.

Farther north, where the Category 2 hurricane’s bands were just starting to be felt, there was lingering concern over winds that reached 105 mph (169 kmh), as well as a kind of war-weariness for a region still rebuilding from last year’s Hurricane Florence.

In the South Carolina coastal fishing village of McClellanville, the oysterman and bartender Pete Kornack was taking Dorian seriously as it churned closer to him Thursday morning. But this time, he decided to stay put.

“I’m not running anymore,” said Kornack, 52, whose mother-in-law is in her 80s and does not travel as well as she used to. It was tiresome, he said, to live constantly in the crosshairs. He had lived through so many storms he mixed up their names, saying “It’s like someone points a cannon at you, and says, ‘We might pull the trigger, we might push the button’. It’s a bad feeling. It’s just trauma.” In the Bahamas, where some neighbourhoods were reduced to rubble, the trauma was even more acute, with 30 deaths confirmed and authorities fearing many more. The death count “could be staggering,” Duane Sands, the minister of health, said Thursday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida declared Dorian a “close call” on Thursday, and the storm became a Carolina problem.

Hurricanes are the great, grim, incessant force of the coast of the Carolinas, a recurring source of heartbreak and death that have influenced the course of the region’s history. From 1851 until last year, 382 “tropical cyclone events” affected North Carolina alone – an average of 2.27 storms per year, according to the North Carolina Climate Office.

Before dawn Thursday, winds had downed numerous trees and powerlines, and by breakfast time the South Carolina Emergency Management Division reported that more than 199,000 customers were without power. Areas where tornadoes were reported included North Myrtle Beach and Little River, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

By early afternoon, Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina lifted evacuation orders for three counties along the state’s southern coast – Jasper, Beaufort and Colleton – but cautioned residents there that they might encounter power losses, downed lines and dangerous flooding upon their return.

McMaster said he was concerned about worse-than-expected rain and surge north of Charleston. As much as 4 feet (1.2m) of water flowed on Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach, he said. The Waccamaw River was expected to crest late on Friday and into Saturday morning.

“We’re still battening down the hatches,” McMaster said. “When the wind stops, we still have to deal with the water, because the water’s going to last longer.” In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper warned that the arrival of Dorian would bring “sustained winds up to 100 miles an hour (160kph), the threat of tornadoes and a high risk of dangerous flash floods.” While inland and river flooding were likely, Cooper said, “the worst of the storm’s effects will be on the coast until the storm clears the Outer Banks tomorrow.” Many vacationers had already left Outer Banks communities, and locals were scrambling to pack up their belongings as the wind started to pick up Thursday afternoon.

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