Hurricane Dorian gained fearsome new muscle as an “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm, as it bore down on the north-western Bahamas early on Saturday en route to Florida’s east coast.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, however, said its meteorologists were uncertain whether Dorian would make a devastating direct strike or inflict a glancing blow. Some of the more reliable computer models predicted a late turn northward that would have Dorian hug the Florida coast.
“There is hope,” Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said.
The faint hope of dodging Dorian’s fury came on Friday, even as the storm ratcheted up to a dangerous category 4 storm, raising fears Dorian could be the most powerful hurricane to hit Florida’s east coast in nearly 30 years.
Millions in Florida, Walt Disney World and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort could be in the crosshairs. Forecasters said Dorian, which had top sustained winds of 140mph on Friday night, will threaten the Florida peninsula late on Monday or early on Tuesday.
National Hurricane Center projections showed Dorian hitting roughly near Fort Pierce, some 70 miles north of Mar-a-Lago, then running along the coastline as it moved north. But forecasters cautioned that the storm’s track remains still highly uncertain and even a small deviation could put Dorian offshore – or well inland.
Trump has declared a state of emergency in Florida and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to coordinate disaster-relief efforts. He told reporters “Mar-a-Lago can handle itself” and that he is more worried about Florida.
Labor Day weekend plans were upended. Major airlines began allowing travelers to change reservations without fees. Big cruise lines began rerouting their ships.
Still, with Dorian days away and its track uncertain, Disney and other major resorts held off announcing any closings and Florida authorities ordered no immediate mass evacuations.
“Sometimes if you evacuate too soon, you may evacuate into the path of the storm if it changes,” Governor Ron DeSantis said.
Some counties announced mandatory evacuations ahead of time. Brevard county and Martin county officials said residents of barrier islands, mobile homes and low-lying areas would be under a mandatory evacuation order beginning on Sunday morning.
The Brevard county order includes the Kennedy Space Center. Indian River county officials said they will recommend residents of its barrier island voluntarily evacuate once hurricane warnings are issued.
Homeowners and businesses rushed to cover their windows with plywood. Supermarkets ran out of bottled water, and long lines formed at gas stations, with some fuel shortages reported.
“This is big and is growing, and it still has some time to get worse,” Julio Vasquez said at a Miami fast-food joint next to a gas station that had run out of fuel. “No one knows what can really happen. This is serious.”
At a Publix supermarket in Cocoa Beach, Ed Ciecirski of the customer service department said the pharmacy was extra busy with people rushing to fill prescriptions. The grocery was rationing bottled water and had run out of dry ice.
“It’s hairy,” he said.
Early Saturday, Dorian was centered 470 miles east of West Palm Beach. It was moving north-west at 12mph. Forecasters warned that its slow movement means Florida could face a prolonged wallop of wind, storm surge and torrential rain.
Coastal areas of the south-eastern US could get 6in to 12in of rain, with 18inin some places, triggering life-threatening flash floods, the NHC said.
The NHC advisory released at 5am also warned that the “risk of strong winds and life-threatening storm surge” during the middle of next week is increasing along Georgia and South Carolina’s coasts.
In the Bahamas, canned food and bottled water were disappearing from shelves and the sound of hammering echoed across the islands as people boarded up their homes. Dorian was expected to hit the north-western part of the Bahamas by Sunday with the potential for life-threatening storm surge that could raise water levels 15ft.
“Do not be foolish and try to brave out this hurricane,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said. “The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life.”
