Hurricane Dorian: Latest updates on deadly storm's forecast track along East Coast

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dorian was expected to start moving slowly to the west-northwest Tuesday while continuing to pound Grand Bahama Island into the morning.

Although Dorian wasn't forecasted to make landfall, the NHC noted that the wind field increased and any deviation of the track to the east would wring hurricane-force winds onshore along portions of Florida's east coast.

While it was expected to stay offshore, meteorologist Daniel Brown cautioned that "only a small deviation" could draw the storm's risky core toward land. Its winds have weakened slightly, with maximum sustained gusts of 120 miles per hour (195 km/h), making it a Category 3 storm. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Florida, Georgia and SC were ordered to evacuate before the storm rolls up the Eastern Seaboard, bringing the possibility of life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if the storm's heart stays offshore, as forecast.

In an Instagram post on Monday, SeaWorld Orlando announced that the park would be closed all day on Tuesday.

Hurricane Dorian was finally beginning to move away from Grand Bahama Island - at only 1 miles per hour.

Then, it will move "very near" Georgia and SC on Wednesday, it added.

After Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, here's the latest projections on how it could affect NC

A few hours later, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ordered mandatory evacuations for that state's Atlantic coast, also starting at midday Monday.

Nine counties in Florida have issued mandatory evacuation orders.

Further north, the streets of Sea Island, Georgia, were largely empty on Tuesday after many visitors heeded evacuation orders, said Kathryn Ross, owner of the Pelican Market grocery store.

After days of warnings to flee a storm that at its peak was rated at the top of the scale of hurricane strength, many residents of Florida's coast remained unsure whether to wait it out or evacuate.

Near the coast, the storm surge will be accompanied by "large and destructive" waves.

The Red Cross estimates that as many as 13,000 houses might have been damaged or destroyed on Grand Bahama Island and the neighboring Abaco Islands, which also saw extensive flooding and where at least five people were killed.