In pictures: The destructive path of Hurricane Dorian – Al Jazeera America

Hurricane Dorian first appeared in the Atlantic on August 26 and islands in the eastern Caribbean went on alert as the storm strengthened.

Barbados and St Lucia were the first impacted by the Category 1 hurricane.

Dorian then entered the Caribbean and set its sights on Puerto Rico. But it was eventually the US Virgin Islands that were hit by the storm.

After moving north, Dorian strengthened quickly into a major hurricane and took aim at the Bahamas.

Just after reaching Category 5 intensity, Dorian made landfall on Abaco, Bahamas. It then slowed down to a crawl and eventually to a stop over Grand Bahama Island for 36 hours.

Once Dorian began to move again, it headed north, then northwest, just off the US coastline causing a strong storm surge for Georgia and the Carolinas.

It eventually made another landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a short period of time.

Picking up pace back in the Atlantic, Dorian made a final landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada.