Originally predicted to hit Florida and Alabama the hardest, Hurricane Dorian has demolished areas in the Caribbean as well as part of the United States’ east coast. The category five storm slowed to a category one before making contact with North Carolina this past Friday the 6th, but the 90 mile per hour winds still prompted severe storm and flash flood warnings. 

Hurricane Dorian started out as a category three storm the previous Saturday before it hit the Bahamas, later progressing into a category five and claiming land, possessions and lives. The storm’s record winds clocked in at a whopping 183 miles per hour, fast enough to rip apart concrete buildings. Dorian was the largest hurricane on record to hit the Bahamas. It was expected to move up the east coast, posing a threat to areas as far north as Atlantic Canada. Its journey ended over the weekend after it actually reached Canada on September 8th. 

Meteorologists predicted the storm’s direction to the best of their ability, anticipating that it would hit Florida as hard as Hurricane Irma did last year, but storm tracking can only predict so much. In response, scientists mapped out the possible routes Dorian could take just as a warning to any potential areas in danger. 

Coincidentally, other extreme weather conditions have appeared completely separate from Hurricane Dorian. A tornado touched down in Waukegan, IL on September 3rd, causing damage but only injuring one according to Patch, a news website based in Joliet.

Dorian’s reign ended after taking at least 43 lives and leaving 70,000 homeless in the Bahamas, according to CNN. Over a thousand people have been evacuated from the islands on a cruise ship to Nassau. Search and recovery efforts are progressing slowly due to the intense damage left behind by the hurricane. In Canada, over 300,000 people were left without power, even though Dorian is now only classified as a severe storm.

Hurricane Dorian lasted for two and a half weeks and caused around seven billion dollars in damages, as well as breaking multiple records including strongest sustained winds according to the Palm Beach Post.