Tourists in the Bahamas have a different more dangerous kind of adventure travel at this time. Luckily no incidents are reported involving visitors, the western Atlantic, Hurricane Joaquin was still packing top winds of 130 mph on Friday, making it a dangerous Category 4 hurricane
After attacking the Bahamas for a second day, the system is projected to make a hard right turn north and possibly put New England or Nova Scotia, Canada, in its dangerous path.
Because the forecast track has been shifted east, the threat to the Mid-Atlantic states has been reduced.
After several days of uncertainty with computer models showing different paths for the storm, there was “reasonable agreement” that Joaquin would weaken in the next 12 to 24 hours, begin to move more quickly northward during Friday and then accelerate northeastward Friday night and through Saturday, the NHC said in its 5 a.m. advisory.
Florida is clear, but surf and dangerous ocean currents should be expected this weekend.
At 5 a.m. Friday, Hurricane Joaquin was about 20 miles east-southeast of Clarence Town in the Bahamas, moving toward the northwest at 3 mph. A compact system, its hurricane-force winds extend 50 miles from its core.
Surging waters reached the windows of some houses on Long Island in the Bahamas while on Eleuthera island people hauled sandbags and boarded up businesses as the storm got closer on Friday.
The Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency did not report any casualties at this time
Perry Christie, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas said he was amending laws to mandate evacuations because some people were refusing to move into shelters.
The third hurricane – and second major hurricane – of the 2015 season, Joaquin rapidly intensified from tropical storm with 40 mph winds to its current Category 4 status in less than three days.
Under the latest forecast, Joaquin would pass about 330 miles east of Miami on Friday, about 150 miles east of the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Monday and arrive near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Tuesday.
At least five U.S. states — New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia — had declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm.
While its top winds are projected to reach 140 mph within the next day, the system is expected to steadily weaken back into a tropical storm with top winds of 65 mph as it moves farther north.
