(Bloomberg) — Hurricane Dorian, working its way up the U.S. East Coast, is approaching Georgia and the Carolinas after sweeping quickly past Florida with nowhere near the brutal force it brought to bear on the Bahamas.Dorian’s center was off of southern Georgia, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Charleston, South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. New York time advisory. The storm was recording sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, just 1 mph short of regaining Category 3 status.The hurricane’s first landfall in the U.S. could come near Wilmington, North Carolina or further up the coast on the Outer Banks, said Thomas Downs, a meteorologist with WeatherBell Analytics in New York. Meanwhile, the Bahamas are starting to assess the damage from the strongest storm to hit the island nation in modern history, with seven deaths confirmed and more expected.There’s a chance Dorian could strengthen, according to Thomas Downs, a meteorologist with WeatherBell Analytics in New York. “Right now the system is starting to tighten up,” he said.President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in North Carolina, clearing the way for U.S. disaster relief. With the storm widening out, “coastal areas of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina will likely receive stronger winds than Florida,” Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at the Weather Co., an IBM business, said in an email.South Carolina, he said, "may receive a foot of rain."The hurricane couldn’t be arriving at a worse time for farmers in the region raising cotton, tobacco, hemp and corn. Fields were maturing and high winds could deal a potentially devastating blow before farmers have a chance to harvest.In the Bahamas, meanwhile, storm waters were just starting to recede on Wednesday from a storm surge that hit 23 feet at times during the two days Dorian sat over the island nation. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said he expects the death toll to rise, noting in a news conference that parts of Abaco — the area first hit by the storm — have been “decimated” with “severe damage to homes, businesses and other buildings and infrastructure."The damage wrought upon Grand Bahama and neighboring Abaco is likely to run into “hundreds of millions if not billions,” the Nassau Guardian newspaper cited Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest as saying. Large tracts of homes are under water, and the government intends to make formal appeals for assistance, he said.On Tuesday, the Bahamas government delivered an “urgent plea” for owners of boats and jet skis to help out with post-hurricane rescue operations for residents stranded by flood waters.Meanwhile, as Dorian lumbered north, power companies in the Southeast scrambled to prepare.Duke Energy Corp, which owns several utilities in the region, released out-of-state workers it had dispatched to Florida in advance of the storm and instead readied crews in the Carolinas. Santee Cooper, which supplies power to 2 million people in South Carolina, has a crew of more than 800 standing by for recovery efforts. The company estimates as many as 700,000 could lose power from the storm.Cities further up the coast were bracing. Sandbags have been distributed in Charleston and the city encouraged some residents to park their vehicles on higher ground. Local and state governments in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas have ordered coastline residents and businesses to begin evacuations.“Please listen to and follow all evacuation orders,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement announcing a mandatory evacuation order for the state’s tourist-friendly coast. “We have seen the life and death effects of this storm in the Bahamas, and we urge everyone on the islands at the coast to leave.”Looking forward, the storm will sweep by Cape Cod in Massachusetts over the weekend, where it could bring tropical storm conditions, the National Weather Service said.To map assets in Hurricane Dorian’s path, click here.\–With assistance from Sharon Cho, David R. Baker, Will Wade, Todd Shields, Josh Wingrove, Alyza Sebenius, Michael Riley, Bill Lehane, Sheela Tobben, Jonathan Levin, Andrew Janes, Kim Chipman, Christopher Martin and Matthew Bristow.To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Reg Gale, Steven FrankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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