Hurricane Joaquin is moving slowly - here's what that means for the East Coast

Lydia RamseyOct 2, 2015, 19:27 IST

Joaquin is still pummeling the Bahamas with 130 mph winds.

The Category 4 out of 5 storm is moving slowly, which means it's still hitting parts of the Bahamas that have been in the storm's path since late Wednesday night.

Here's what the storm looked like on October 1:

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/flickr

It's looking less likely that the storm will make landfall on the East Coast, as forecasts had expected Thursday.

But because Joaquin is moving so slow, the National Hurricane Center is still being cautious about what it could mean for the US and Bermuda:

Bermuda, an island pretty far off the East Coast of the US, still could get hit hard by the hurricane, depending on how close the storm comes to it.Even if Joaquin doesn't make landfall, the East Coast, especially in the mid-Atlantic, should brace itself for rain, which was already in the forecast before Joaquin got going.Here's the five-day forecasted track for Joaquin, as of 8 a.m. Friday. The center of Joaquin is labeled with the orange circle.

NOAA

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Hurricane Joaquin is moving slowly - here's what that means for the East Coast

NOW WATCH: Here's a time-lapse of the Perseids - the most stunning meteor shower of the year