The same perennially warm waters that attract tourists to the Bahamas also helped sustain one of the most destructive storms ever seen in the region.

For more than a day Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Bahamas, where it unloaded 185 mile-per-hour winds at its peak, dumped intense rainfall, and inundated homes with storm surge.

What was a Category 3 storm on Friday quickly intensified into a Category 5 by Sunday. As it passed through the Bahamas on Monday evening, the same atmospheric system steering the storm toward Florida was interrupted, essentially leaving the storm without winds to propel it forward.

The rapid growth was fueled by what NASA described as “storm-fueling waters” around southern Florida and the Bahamas.

It was essentially “really