By KERRI SHUTIKA

Rain is pounding against the windows of your home. Trees are being ripped from the ground by the powerful winds. The streets are flooded to the point where a raft would be more useful than a car. You are trapped in the midst of hurricane Dorian.

After grazing Puerto Rico, Hurricane Dorian ran through the Carolinas and Georgia, just scraping Florida’s east coast. The hurricane had previously destroyed parts of the Bahamas for 48 hours, leaving at least 20 people dead, according to CNN. However, according to The Guardian, the death toll has now risen to at least 50. Rescue and relief efforts have been used. 

Hurricane Dorian regained strength after the Bahamas, becoming a category 3 hurricane with heavy rain and strong winds following. Hurricane forecasters warned northern Georgia and southern Virginia, telling millions to evacuate, CBS reported. Dorian had maximum sustained winds of “115 mph” the hurricane center said, as reported in SOURCE. The core of the hurricane was approximately 80 miles south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, and 200 miles south-southwest of Wilmington, North Carolina, moving north at 8 mph. More than 1,500 people are staying in a total of 28 shelters in South Carolina, American Red Cross has stated.  

Residents of Virginia Beach’s Sandbridge community have been told to evacuate, Virginia Beach’s Acting City Manager Tom Leahy announced. The storm could potentially “significantly impact” Virginia Beach, Stever Cover, the Deputy City Manager, has said.

Tens of thousands of people still remain homeless in the Bahamas. Sayde Francis, the director of One Eleuthera Foundation, said that some people will have “nowhere to go.” The UN estimates that 76,000 people in Grand Bahama and Abaco islands have been left in dire need of help.

According to the Miami Herald, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that they will be increasing the amount of money they are spending on humanitarian assistance. Agency Administration Marke Green has said that they will be contributing roughly $4 million dollars more to help provide efforts for shelter, food, water, and medicine to the Bahamas. Telecommunications are also being provided as a way to connect the islands.