Bahamians have rescued victims of Hurricane Dorian with jet skis and a bulldozer as the US coast guard, Britain’s Royal Navy and aid groups tried to get food and medicine to survivors and take the most desperate people to safety.

Airports were flooded and roads impassable after the most powerful storm to hit the Bahamas in recorded history parked over Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, pounding them with winds up to 185mph and torrential rain before finally moving into open waters on a course towards Florida.

People on the US coast made final preparations for a storm with winds at a still-dangerous 105mph, making it a Category 2 storm.

Hurricane Dorian’s likely path
(PA Graphics)

At least seven deaths were reported in the Bahamas, with the full scope of the disaster still unknown.

The storm’s punishing winds and muddy brown floodwaters destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes, crippled hospitals and trapped people in attics.

“It’s total devastation. It’s decimated. Apocalyptic,” said Lia Head-Rigby, who helps run a local hurricane relief group and flew over the Bahamas’ hard-hit Abaco Islands.

“It’s not rebuilding something that was there; we have to start again.”

She said her representative on Abaco told her there were “a lot more dead”, though she had no numbers.

This aerial photo provided by Medic Corps shows the destruction brought by Hurricane Dorian on Man-o-War Cay, Bahama
This aerial photo provided by Medic Corps shows the destruction brought by Hurricane Dorian on Man-o-War Cay, Bahamas (Medic Corps via AP)

The Bahamas’ prime minister also expected more deaths and predicted that rebuilding would require “a massive, co-ordinated effort”.

“We are in the midst of one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said at a news conference.

“No effort or resources will be held back.”

Five coast guard helicopters ran near-hourly flights to the stricken Abaco, flying more than 20 injured people to the capital’s main hospital.

British sailors were rushing in aid and a few private aid groups also tried to reach the battered islands in the northern Bahamas.

“We don’t want people thinking we’ve forgotten them. … We know what your conditions are,” Tammy Mitchell, of the Bahamas’ National Emergency Management Agency, told ZNS Bahamas radio station.

With their heads bowed against heavy wind and rain, rescuers began evacuating people from the storm’s aftermath across Grand Bahama island, using jet skis, boats and even a huge bulldozer that cradled children and adults in its digger as it churned through deep waters and carried them to safety.

A woman who was trapped by floodwaters during Hurricane Dorian is transported out of the area by volunteers on a jet ski near the Causarina bridge in Freeport, Grand Bahama
A woman who was trapped by floodwaters is transported out of the area by volunteers on a jet ski in Freeport, Grand Bahama (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

One rescuer gently scooped up an elderly man in his arms and walked towards a pickup truck waiting to evacuate him and others to higher ground.

More than two million people along the coast in Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina were warned to evacuate.

While the threat of a direct hit on Florida had all but evaporated, Dorian was expected to pass dangerously close to Georgia and South Carolina – and perhaps strike North Carolina – on Thursday or Friday.

The hurricane’s eye passed to the east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, early on Wednesday.

Even if landfall does not occur, the system is likely to cause storm surge and severe flooding, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

“Don’t tough it out. Get out,” said US Federal Emergency Management Agency official Carlos Castillo.

In the Bahamas, Red Cross spokesman Matthew Cochrane said more than 13,000 houses, or about 45% of the homes on Grand Bahama and Abaco, were believed to be severely damaged or destroyed.

UN officials said more than 60,000 people on the hard-hit islands will need food, and the Red Cross said some 62,000 will need clean drinking water.

“What we are hearing lends credence to the fact that this has been a catastrophic storm and a catastrophic impact,” Mr Cochrane said.

Lawson Bates, from Arkansas-based MedicCorps, flew over Abaco and said: “It looks completely flattened. There’s boats way inland that are flipped over. It’s total devastation.”

Volunteers rescue a family from the rising waters of Hurricane Dorian, near the Causarina bridge in Freeport, Grand Bahama
Volunteers rescue a family from the rising waters of Hurricane Dorian in Freeport (Ramon EspinosaAP)

The Red Cross has authorised 500,000 dollars for the first wave of disaster relief, Mr Cochrane said.

UN humanitarian teams stood ready to go into the stricken areas to help assess damage and the country’s needs, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The US government also sent a disaster response team.

Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, with a combined population of about 70,000, are known for their marinas, golf courses and all-inclusive resorts.

To the south, the Bahamas’ most populous island, New Providence, which includes the capital city of Nassau and has more than a quarter of a million people, had little damage.

The US coast guard airlifted at least 21 people injured on Abaco.

Choppy, coffee-coloured floodwaters reached roofs and the tops of palm trees.

“We will confirm what the real situation is on the ground,” health minister Duane Sands said.

“We are hoping and praying that the loss of life is limited.”

Mr Sands said Dorian rendered the main hospital on Grand Bahama unusable, while the hospital at Marsh Harbour on Abaco was in need of food, water, medicine and surgical supplies.

He said crews were trying to fly out five to seven kidney failure patients from Abaco who had not received dialysis since Friday.

Cars sit submerged in water from Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Bahamas
Cars sit submerged in water from Hurricane Dorian in Freeport (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

The Grand Bahama airport was under 6ft of water.

Early on Wednesday, Dorian was centred about 90 miles east of Daytona Beach, Florida, and it was moving north northwest at 8mph.

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 60 miles from its centre, while tropical storm-force winds could be felt up to 175 miles from the core.

The US coast from north of West Palm Beach, Florida, through Georgia was expected to get 3in to 6in of rain, with 9in in places, while the Carolinas could get 5in to 10in and 15 in spots, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Forecasters also tracked Tropical Storm Fernand as it closed in on the north-east Mexican coast south of the US border, predicting landfall on Wednesday and up to 18in of rainfall that could unleash flash floods and mudslides below the eastern Sierra Madre range.

Nasa satellite imagery through Monday night showed some places in the Bahamas had seen as much as 35in of rain, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue.

Parliament member Iram Lewis said he feared waters would keep rising and stranded people would lose contact with officials as their mobile phone batteries died.

Dorian also left one person dead in its wake in Puerto Rico before slamming into the Bahamas on Sunday.

It tied the record for the strongest Atlantic storm ever to hit land, matching the Labour Day hurricane that struck Florida’s Gulf Coast in 1935, before storms were given names.

Across the south east, interstate motorways leading away from beaches in South Carolina and Georgia were turned into one-way evacuation routes.

Several airports announced closings, and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Walt Disney World in Orlando closed in the afternoon, and SeaWorld shut down.

Police in coastal Savannah, Georgia, announced an overnight curfew.

North Carolina governor Roy Cooper ordered a mandatory evacuation of the dangerously exposed barrier islands along the state’s entire coast.