Residents of North Carolina's Outer Banks brace for Dorian

After triggering tornadoes in South Carolina, Hurricane Dorian was closing in for a possible direct hit Friday on North Carolina's Outer Banks, a string of low-lying islands, even as it weakened to a Category 1 storm.

On Ocracoke Island, near the southern end of the 320-kilometer string of barrier islands and spits, about 500 of the 1,000 residents have stuck around to face the storm, said Ann Warner, the owner of Howard's Pub on the island.

"The boats are tied down. Yards are cleaned up. Businesses are closed. People are hunkered down," Warner said by phone Thursday.

The ferries stopped service on Wednesday, she noted.

"It's too late to leave," Warner said. "If you want to change your mind, it's too late. We're on our own." Further north, Virginia was also in harm's way, and a round of evacuations was ordered there.

The hurricane hammered the Bahamas with 295 kph winds, killing at least 30 people, but swept past Florida at a relatively safe distance, grazed Georgia, and then hugged the South Carolina-North Carolina coastline. At least four deaths in the Southeast have been blamed on the storm.

Twisters spun off by Dorian peeled away roofs and flipped trailers in South Carolina, and more than 250,000 homes and businesses were left without power. Dorian's winds weakened after sunset Thursday to 161 kph, before falling further early Friday to 90 mph (145 kph), making it a Category 1 storm.

In coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, heavy rain fell horizontally, trees bent in the wind and traffic lights swayed as the hurricane drew near.

Overnight winds were expected to cause trees and branches to fall on power lines, and debris could block repair crews from accessing damaged lines, said Mike Burnette senior vice president of Electric Cooperatives, a utility provider in North Carolina. Customers should prepare for prolonged power outages, he said.

"We have a long night ahead of us. Everyone needs to stay in a safe place and off the roads until the storm passes," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said.

About 150 evacuees were camped out at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, speedway spokesman Scott Cooper said.

Leslie Lanier, 61, was one of those who decided to stay behind on Ocracoke Island. She boarded up her home and bookstore, making sure to move the volumes higher.

"I think we're in for a great big mess," said The National Hurricane Center forecast as much as 38 centimeters of rain for the coastal Carolinas, with flash-flooding likely.

On Thursday, Dorian swamped roads in historic downtown of Charleston, South Carolina, and knocked down some 150 trees and toppled power lines. Gusts had topped 129 kph in some areas. The port city of handsome antebellum homes sits on a peninsula that is prone to flooding even from ordinary storms.

Dorian apparently spawned at least one tornado in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, damaging several homes, and another twister touched down in the beach town of Emerald Isle, North Carolina, mangling and overturning several trailer homes in a jumble of sheet metal. No immediate injuries were reported.

The four deaths attributed to the storm in the mainland US took place in Florida and North Carolina. All of them involved men who died in falls or by electrocution while trimming trees, putting up storm shutters or otherwise getting ready for the hurricane.

As of early Friday, Dorian was centered about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Cape Hatteras, and 25 miles (40 kilometers) south-southwest of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, where hurricane-force winds were reported "just offshore."