Florida officials breathe sigh of relief as Dorian heads to Carolinas

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Florida officials said they "dodged a missile" as Hurricane Dorian left the state relatively unscathed as it moved north along the shore toward the Carolinas.

"To say we dodged a bullet would be an understatement. We dodged a missile," Volusia County Manager George Recktenwald said during a press conference Wednesday.

Having threatened to hit Florida dead-on as a powerful storm, Dorian ended up only lashing the southeastern side of the state with strong winds and rain as the Category 2 storm made its 24-hour trip north.

There were reports of downed trees and power lines, power outages in the thousands and beach erosion, but with no significant injuries yet reported, the state fared much better than the Bahamas, which incurred a death toll of at least 20 from the storm that made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane earlier this week.

Recktenwald said fire crews inspected his county and found no major damage while Sheriff Rick Staly of Flagler County, which is to Volusia's north, said his county experienced no significant structural damage or serious injury.

"At this point, I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief," he said.

The National Hurricane Center lifted the last of its Hurricane Dorian alerts late Wednesday for Florida, which had issued several evacuation orders throughout the state as the storm approached.

However, Florida's Director of Emergency Management Jared Moskowitz warned residents not to celebrate just yet as more hurricanes could be in the state's immediate future.

"While Florida was fortunate that Hurricane Dorian stayed off our coast, we are still in peak hurricane season and we must remain focused to make sure that state is prepared to respond to any storm," he said in a statement. "I urge every resident to be prepared and continue to take every storm seriously."

On approaching the Carolinas, Dorian had regained its Category 3 status with winds near 115 mph threatening to bring "life-threatening storm surges" with it.

"We got lucky in Florida -- very, very lucky indeed," President Trump said in a briefing Wednesday, who described Dorian as having "grazed" the Sunshine state.

"We certainly got lucky in Florida," Trump said. "Now, if we get lucky in Georgia and -- if you look at South Carolina, North Carolina, but it could even extend beyond that. So, we're talking about Virginia," he said. "So, we'll see what happens."