Flights at LAX canceled, delayed due to Hurricane Dorian

About 1,200 flights across the country, including in Southern California, were expected to be delayed or canceled Tuesday as Hurricane Dorian continued to pummel the Bahamas and possibly approaching the Florida coast later in the day.

More than 600 flights to and from Orlando, Florida, were canceled as the storm pounded away at the islands in a catastrophic onslaught that sent floodwaters up to the second floors of buildings, trapped people in attics and chased others from one shelter to another. At least five deaths were reported.

Three flights were canceled at Los Angeles International Airport, down from seven flights on Labor Day. Several other large airports announced closings, and hundreds of flights were canceled.

Carriers including American Airlines, Southwest and United were offering travelers who were affected by the storm cancellations and delays the option to change their flight or receive a refunded ticket.

Dorian was expected to approach the Florida coast later Tuesday, but the threat to the state eased significantly, with the National Hurricane Center's projected track showing most of the coast just outside the cone of potential landfall. No place in Florida had more than an 8% chance of getting hit by hurricane-force winds.

As Labor Day weekend drew to a close, hundreds of thousands of people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina - more than 800,000 in South Carolina alone, and a half-million in Georgia - were warned to evacuate for fear Dorian could bring life-threatening storm-surge flooding even if the hurricane's center stayed offshore, as forecast.

Dorian was downgraded to a Category 3 storm Tuesday but is expected to continue moving up the East Coast from Florida to North Carolina, picking up speed into Wednesday and Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.