WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Dorian has come ashore at Cape Hatteras on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, marking its first U.S. landfall since it slammed into the Bahamas days ago.

Dorian sideswiped most of the Southeast seaboard from Florida to Carolinas in recent days before its eye made landfall Friday morning.

At 9 a.m. EDT, the storm’s center was moving northeast at 14 mph (22 kph).

On Thursday, Dorian raked the Carolina coast with howling winds and heavy rain, spinning off tornadoes and knocking out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Dorian is expected to accelerate as it moves off extreme southeastern New England sometime Friday night and early Saturday before a weekend approach to Nova Scotia in Canada.