Hurricane Dorian slams into the Bahamas: Hurricane Dorian slams into the Bahamas , The British Royal Navy auxiliary ship, RFA Mounts Bay, is due to arrive in the Bahamas today...

Hurricane Dorian slams into the Bahamas

British Royal Navy ship to arrive in the Bahamas today

Hurricane Dorian slams into the Bahamas , The British Royal Navy auxiliary ship, RFA Mounts Bay, is due to arrive in the Bahamas today, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The ship was deployed to the region in June in anticipation of hurricane season and was redirected to the Bahamas when news of Hurricane Dorian broke, according to a Ministry of Defence spokesperson.

The ship carries aid, building materials, a helicopter, specialist transport equipment, and surveying equipment, said the spokesperson.

The ship will be on standby “ready” to help as soon as an official request is made by authorities.

Hurricane Dorian slams into the Bahamas

The Royal Fleet auxiliary ship RFA Mounts Bay in Gibralter in 2013. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Dorian so loud it “sounds like a jet engine”

There’s no sleep for residents in Grand Bahama Island as Hurricane Dorian rages on, at 4 a.m.

“We are being lashed here in Freeport in the island of Grand Bahama by Dorian’s winds all night long in the dark because power is out here. It sounds like a jet engine, just screaming winds that pick up but never really go away,” said CNN correspondent Patrick Oppmann.

“You just have to imagine, for people who are in their homes, no power, no information, no TV, maybe they’re listening to radio — it has to be terrifying.”

He added that Dorian is an unprecedented storm in the Bahamas, with storm surges a major concern. The surge could exceed 20 feet and the highest point on Grand Bahama is 30 feet, Oppmann said.

“Much of this island by the end of today, by tomorrow will be underwater,” he said.

Grand Bahama island is being “lashed incessantly” by Dorian

Hurricane Dorian came to a virtual halt over Grand Bahama island in the early hours of Monday morning, as the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of potential “extreme destruction.”

Home to about 50,000 people, Grand Bahama is being “lashed incessantly with destructive hurricane-force winds,” according to the NHC’s latest update at 4 a.m. Monday.

The maximum sustained winds have slowed slightly to 165 miles per hour — dropping 20 mph from its peak of 185 mph earlier Sunday evening. But the force of the hurricane is even more dangerous combined with how slow it is moving — it is only traveling at 1 mph.

Instead of barrelling past, the hurricane and its destructive winds are hovering over the region for hours at a time. The NHC warned that the hurricane would continue to batter Grand Bahama for most of Monday.