Dorian starts battering Carolinas with wind and rain

Strong winds and heavy rainfall thrashing into the Carolinas coastline Thursday as the damaging Hurricane Dorian regained strength crawling up the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Packing sustained winds of 115 miles-per-hour, Dorian took down trees overnight.

The historic downtown Charleston area already flooded, with thousands of homes and businesses reportedly without power.

The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory warning for Myrtle Beach - a popular South Carolina vacation spot - which could see a record storm surge of over 8 feet - as the worst is yet to come.

More than 2.2 million people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have been ordered to evacuate, although Florida has avoided a direct hit.

These precautions come after...Hurricane Dorian left stretches of the Bahamas looking as if they had been carpet bombed...in the wake of the most damaging storm ever to hit the island nation...

Dorian decimated the Abaco islands- aerial video shows the harbor, shops, workplaces, a hospital, and airport landing strips damaged or blown to pieces.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis mourned the loss of lives at a press conference late Wednesday.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) BAHAMIAN PRIME MINISTER HUBERT ALEXANDER MINNIS, SAYING: "There been 20 confirmed deaths on Abaco. We expect that this number will increase."

As many as 13,000 homes across the Bahamas have been damaged or destroyed.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MARVIN DAMES-MINISTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY FOR THE BAHAMAS SAYING: "We are we're still in the throes of it. Now that the storm has passed we're beginning to carry out our damage assessments and to see exactly logistically how well we're looking.

Survivors thronged rescue helicopters as relief supplies began to arrive on the island... The UN said 70,000 people in the Bahamas needed immediate assistance.

Preliminary estimates show that Hurricane Dorian's devastation could cost the Bahamas $7 bln.