Hurricane Joaquin is threatening to slam the Bahamas, bringing dangerous seas, strong 120 mph winds and flooding to the central islands later today.
The slow moving category 3 storm is intensifying and may build to category 4 over the next few hours.
The Bahamas are on high alert and Bahamasair has cancelled some flights.
The US National Hurricane Center warned Joaquin could become ‘a major hurricane’ by Friday.
It is expected to skim the northeast of the Bahamas, after which it will turn north and run along the US east coast tomorrow and into the weekend. One likely scenario is that it will make landfall between North Carolina and southern New Jersey on Sunday.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe issued state of emergency last night throughout the entire state in response to the recent flooding and in preparation for Joaquin.
Governors in surrounding mid-Atlantic states are closely monitoring the progress of the storm even though emergency declarations have not been issued.
Geoffrey Greene, a senior forecaster with the Bahamas Meteorology Department, said he was ‘very concerned’ about some of the smaller islands in Joaquin’s path, such as San Salvador, Rum Cay and Cat Island, which all have small populations.
Officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which were all hit by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, warned residents to begin making preparations.
"Our state has seen the damage that extreme weather can cause time and time again – and I am urging New Yorkers to take precautions for more heavy storms in the coming days," New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
