Hurricane Joaquin has pulled away from the Bahamas, leaving the fate of a missing cargo ship with 33 crew still unknown, as vast swathes of the US coast braced for more heavy rains and flooding from a separate weather system.
After battering the Bahamas for more than two days, the centre of Joaquin was churning away from the island chain.
It was expected to pass just west of Bermuda, well off the US coastline, on Sunday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
At 11am EDT (4pm Irish time), the storm was about 1,005 km southwest of Bermuda and packing top sustained winds of 215 kilometre per hour, the Miami-based NHC said.
It said the storm strengthened slightly Saturday morning, regaining potentially catastrophic Category 4 status on a scale of one to five, but some weakening was expected over the next 48hours.
While Joaquin has continued to shift away from the US east coast, dangerous flooding triggered by heavy rainfall was expected across the Carolinas, along with parts of Georgia, Virginia and New Jersey this weekend, US forecasters said.
Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard said there was still no trace of El Faro, a 224-m cargo ship that vanished n Thursday morning after it was overcome by heavy weather from Joaquin off Crooked Island in the Bahamas.
The vessel, with 28 US.citizens and five Polish nationals aboard, was headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida when it reported it had lost propulsion and was listing and taking on water, the Coast Guard said.
It said there had been no further communications after the ship issued a distress call at about 7.30 am Thursday.
No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the Bahamas due to Joaquin, which cut a path of destruction across several small islands, but two deaths in the Carolinas on Thursday have been linked to heavy rainfall there.
Before the first easterly shift in Joaquin's trajectory, New York and New Jersey - where Superstorm Sandy killed more than 120 people and caused $70 billion of property damage in October 2012 - both faced potential threats from the storm.
