Shawdesh Desk: Hurricane Dorian is set to slam the Bahamas on Sunday as a dangerous category 4 storm, pounding the islands with up to two days of torrential rain, high waves and damaging winds before taking aim at the United States mainland.

Bahamas prime minister Hubert Minnis begged residents of Abaco and Grand Bahamas to head for the main island to escape the ‘devastating, dangerous’ storm.

‘I want you to remember: homes, houses, structures can be replaced. Lives cannot be replaced,’ he told a news conference on Saturday, adding that 73,000 people and 21,000 homes were at risk to storm surges of up to 15 feet.

Late on Saturday, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said Dorian was packing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and was about 155 miles east of Abaco.

After churning over the Bahamas, it is expected to veer northwest and could spare Florida a direct hit. Communities further north in Georgia and South Carolina raised alert levels on Saturday, with residents filling sandbags as authorities tested infrastructure and hurricane drills.

Despite the more favourable forecasts for Florida, town authorities there told people to remain vigilant and a tropical storm watch was issued for a more than 120-mile stretch of the state’s coast, meaning sustained winds of up to 73 mph were possible within 48 hours.

Most tourists planned to leave the Bahamas got out before the main airport closed on Friday night.