Storm Surge, Torrential Rains And Hurricane Force Winds Pound The Carolinas As Hurricane Dorian Grinds North

Powerful Hurricane Dorian is unleashing its full array of hazards on the Carolinas just days after causing a humanitarian crisis in the northwestern Bahamas and then zagging around the Florida Peninsula.

The Category 3 storm has already flooded parts of downtown Charleston, S.C., with a combination of storm surge and rainfall runoff, prompting a flash-flood warning through midmorning there, in addition to a storm-surge warning.

If it makes landfall in North Carolina, it would be the first Category 3 to do so since Fran in 1996.

While intensifying, its wind field has expanded, with tropical-storm and hurricane-force winds covering more territory.

Even the Virginia Tidewater and southern Delmarva Peninsula could endure tropical storm conditions by Friday, after which the storm is expected to finally zoom away to the northeast.