Hurricane Dorian news – live: Mass evacuations underway in Florida and Georgia as deadly storm approaches US coast

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of Hurricane Dorian.

Hurricane Dorian came to a catastrophic daylong halt over the northwest Bahamas, flooding the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama with walls of water that lapped into the second floors of buildings, trapped people in attics and drowned the Grand Bahama airport under six feet of water. At least five people died and 21 injured people were airlifted to the capital by the US Coast Guard, Bahamas officials said. 

"We are in the midst of a historic tragedy," prime minister Hubert Minnis said. "The devastation is unprecedented and extensive." 

Winds and rain continued to pound the northwest islands, sending people fleeing the floodwaters from one shelter to another. 

By Tuesday morning, the storm's top sustained winds had dipped to 120mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane, but it remained almost stationary. It was centered 25 miles northeast of Freeport - roughly the same distance from the city as at 9am. Hurricane-force winds extended out as far as 45 mph in some directions. 

Hundreds of thousands of people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were ordered to evacuate before the storm rolls up the Eastern Seaboard, bringing the possibility of life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if the storm's heart stays offshore, as forecast. Several large airports announced closures and many flights were cancelled for Monday and Tuesday. 

The US Coast Guard airlifted at least 21 people injured on Abaco Island, which Dorian hit on Sunday with sustained winds of 185mph and gusts up to 220mph, a strength matched only by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before storms were named. Scientists say climate change generally has been fueling more powerful and wetter storms and the only recorded storm more powerful than Dorian was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 190mph winds, though it did not make landfall at that strength. 

Abaco and Grand Bahama, neither much more than 40 feet above sea level at their highest points, are home to some 70,000 people.

Bahamian officials said they received a "tremendous" number of calls from people in flooded homes. One radio station said it received more than 2,000 distress messages, including reports of a 5-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a woman with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters. At least two designated storm shelters flooded. 

Dorian killed one person in Puerto Rico, at the start of its path through the Caribbean. 

Minnis said many homes and buildings were severely damaged or destroyed, but it was too early to say how much the rebuilding effort would cost. Choppy brown floodwaters reached roofs and the top of palm trees on Monday. 

Parliament member Iram Lewis said his greatest fear was that waters would keep rising overnight and that stranded people would lose contact with officials as cellphone batteries died. 

"It is scary," he said, adding that Grand Bahama's airport was 6 feet (almost 2 meters) underwater and that people were moving shelters as floodwaters kept surging. "We're definitely in dire straits." 

The US National Hurricane Center said Dorian was expected to start moving slowly to the west-northwest on Tuesday while continuing to pound Grand Bahama Island into the morning. 

The Center said the track would carry the storm "dangerously close to the Florida east coast late on Tuesday through Wednesday evening and then move dangerously close to the Georgia and South Carolina coasts on Wednesday night and Thursday." 

While it was expected to stay offshore, meteorologist Daniel Brown cautioned that "only a small deviation" could draw the storm's dangerous core toward land. 

AP

A mandatory evacuation of entire the South Carolina coast took effect on Monday covering about 830,000 people, and transportation officials reversed all lanes of Interstate 26 from Charleston to head inland earlier than planned after noticing traffic jams from evacuees and vacationers heading home on Labor Day, governor Henry McMaster said. 

A few hours later, Georgia governor Brian Kemp ordered mandatory evacuations for that state's Atlantic coast, also starting at midday Monday. 

Authorities in Florida also ordered some mandatory evacuations. 

FlightAware.com reported that that airlines had cancelled 1,361 flights within, into or out of the US by Monday afternoon - vastly above an average day - with Fort Lauderdale International the most affected, and airlines had already cancelled 1,057 flights for Tuesday, many involving Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami airports. 

A hurricane watch was in effect for Florida's East Coast from Deerfield Beach north to South Santee River in South Carolina. A storm surge watch was extended northward to South Santee River in South Carolina. Lake Okeechobee was under a tropical storm watch. 

A National Guard official, John Anderson, said many people were complying with the evacuation orders. 

"We have not seen much resistance at all," he said. 

Harry Cockburn has this report.

Here's Andrew Buncombe with a round-up of the devastation Dorian caused on Monday and the criticism of Donald Trump, who spent his Labor Day playing golf.

Michael Pintard, the Bahamas’ minister for agriculture, says he is trapped in his flooded house surrounded by a 20 foot high surge of water.

The politician filmed a video of the damage to his property on Grand Lucayan Waterway in Grand Bahama, calmly showing the water level halfway up his windows and doors.

The video was posted on Twitter by Kionne McGhee, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, who said Mr Pintard had sent it to him.

Zamira Rahim has more.

The hurricane has remained parked over the Bahamas on Tuesday, weakening somewhat in force but still hanging over the island chain according to analysts - 

US Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters have flown through Dorian and captured some extraordinary footage of the storm.

This latest announcement really puts in perspective exactly how slow Hurricane Dorian is moving at it churns over the Bahamas - the Category 5 storm is moving just one mile per hour:

  ↵This video is also incredible, illustrating the hurricane's stalling over the Bahamas.

A reminder of the severe travel implications as Hurricane Dorian slowly churns towards the United States: airports across the country are suspending service and cancelling flights as mandatory evacuations begin -