By Fernando Alfonso III, Mike Hayes, Braden Goyette and Meg Wagner, CNN
North Carolina Director of Emergency Management Mike Sprayberry said officials have received reports that hundreds of people may be trapped on the barrier islands in Dare and Hyde counties.
He says they do not have any official number of people who may be stuck.
Hyde County is now preparing to evacuate Ocracoke residents by air, according to a tweet from the county.
From CNN's David Williams
Striking satellite images show the Bahamas before and after Hurricane Dorian hit the islands.
Maxar Technologies captured the after images on Thursday, days after Dorian hit the Bahamas as a devastating Category 5 storm.
Here's the side-by-side images of northwestern Marsh Harbour:
And here's Green Turtle Cay:
From CNN's Hollie Silverman
North Carolina's Hyde County is preparing to evacuate Ocracoke residents by air, according to a tweet from the county.
The county has asked any residents who want to evacuate to contact the Emergency Operations Center so they can get a head count and make arrangements, another tweet said.
Residents who choose to evacuate will be flown to a shelter in Washington County.
They have not yet determined what time they will start evacuating residents.
From CNN's Steve Brusk
North Carolina is extending early voting in four counties impacted by Hurricane Dorian.
Residents will be able to cast their votes today and Saturday in the high profile NC-9 special Congressional election.
The candidates running include Dan McCready, Dan Bishop, Allen Smith, and Jeff Scott, according to ballotpedia.org.
The counties had to close early voting operations during the storm, State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell said.
"We are thankful that Hurricane Dorian did not cause significant damage to the southeastern part of our state, and are mindful of what other areas may still face. We are committed to ensuring that voters in the 9th Congressional District can cast their ballots for the September 10 election. I have ordered affected counties in this district to open today and Saturday to make up for some of the missed hours of early voting and allow voters to same-day register if needed. This is an important election, so we encourage all eligible voters to make their voices heard," Bell said.
Bahamas resident Joey Saunders told CNN he and his son slept in trees for two days after Hurricane Dorian destroyed their home with flood waters.
Saunders said it was early in the morning when the water reached the third floor of his home in Grand Bahama, one of the areas hit hardest by Dorian. Their home has 32-foot ceilings — and the water reached the very top, he said.
The current carried away his 25-year-old son, he told CNN's Patrick Oppmann. They were separated for two days, sleeping in trees, before they reconnected.
"It's a miracle that we survived. It's a miracle," Saunders told CNN.
Watch more:
From CNN's Alisha Ebrahimji
Jason Wells has lived on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina since 1976, with his family heritage going back generations. He said the flooding from Hurricane Dorian is the worst he's every experienced.
“There are people that have had knee-to-waist deep water in their houses, the winds aren’t too bad but the flooding is by far the worst I have ever seen or heard about,” he told CNN.
All Wells and his family can do right now is hope that the water has receded enough and that the storm is far enough so the area doesn’t flood again, he said.
“Several people were rescued from their upper floors or attics by boat or from Good Samaritans,” Wells said.
Here are some photos he took of the flood waters:
From CNN's Alisha Ebrahimji
Joe Chestnut’s parents’ home on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina sits on 5-foot stilts.
As Hurricane Dorian batters the island, the water has risen about 18 inches from the house, he said.
Chestnut told CNN that his parents are trying to conserve cell battery since they lost power earlier in the day. He’s not sure where they stand right now.
Watch video from the house's deck:
CNN's Patrick Oppmann just reached Bevans Town on the island of Grand Bahama yesterday. The water had been too high until then to reach the town, which was devastated by Hurricane Dorian.
Entire swaths of asphalt were swept away in the storm, turning roads into beaches.
"It has just absolutely torn off sections of roads, whole houses," he said,
Watch more:
By CNN's Fernando Alfonso III
Shawn Curry, 37, has spent the past four days living in absolute panic, unsure whether his family on Little Abaco in the Bahamas had survived Hurricane Dorian.
That anxiety was alleviated Thursday when Curry finally heard from his brother Wilfred, who shared details of the destruction Dorian had inflicted on his community.
Wilfred Curry and his father were attempting to gather food and water from Marsh Harbour when their trip was thwarted by floodwaters that had destroyed the main bridge connecting their home in Cedar Harbour with Cooperstown on the greater island, Curry said. Dorian has decimated the northern Bahamas after lingering over the area for days. The death toll Friday morning was 30.
"I heard their voice and got clear indication they were alive. It was a feeling of tremendous relief," Curry said in a phone call from Philadelphia where he lives. "It was almost like a weight had been lifted."
Curry's family was ultimately able to cross over to Cooperstown using a boat but that hasn't stopped him from worrying about their access to supplies. Curry hopes to visit them next week.
Check out the video of the flooded bridge Wilfred Curry shared with his brother: