Hurricane Dorian: Trump warns Florida of 'one of the biggest' as Category 3 storm barrels towards US mainland

Tropical storm Dorian moves toward Puerto Rico

Hurricane Dorian is gaining strength at it approaches Florida, with forecasters warning it could grow into a dangerous storm before it hits the Sunshine State.

The storm has moved out into open waters after hitting Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, where it caused power cuts and flooding in places.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Dorian would probably strengthen into a dangerous Category 4 storm as it passes near or over the northern Bahamas on Saturday, before hitting Florida on Sunday.

Along much of Florida’s east coast, shoppers rushed to stock up on food and emergency supplies at supermarkets and hardware stores and picked the shelves clean of bottled water. Lines formed at service stations as motorists topped off their tanks and filled gasoline cans.

Forecasters said the Category 1 hurricane is expected to bulk up with winds of 130 mph (209 kph) before broadsiding the US on Monday somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia — a 500-mile stretch that reflected the high degree of uncertainty this far out.

Donald Trump said Florida is “going to be totally ready.” He tweeted: “Be prepared and please follow State and Federal instructions, it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!”

As of late Thursday morning, Dorian was centred about 220 miles (355 kilometres) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, its winds blowing at 85 mph (140 kph) as it moved northwest at 13 mph (20 kph).

The National Hurricane Centre’s projected track had the storm blowing ashore midway along the Florida peninsula, southeast of Orlando and well north of Miami. But because of the difficulty of predicting its course this far ahead, the “cone of uncertainty” covered nearly the entire state.

Also imperilled were the Bahamas, with Dorian’s projected track running just to the north of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands.

Puerto Rico seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Hurricane Maria.

The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria.

Several hundred customers were without power across Puerto Rico, said Ángel Figueroa, president of a utility workers union. Police said an 80-year-old man in the town of Bayamón died after he fell trying to climb to his roof to clear it of debris ahead of the storm.

Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

Key Points

• Storm heads for Florida and threatens to develop into Category 3
• Trump warns Sunshine State: 'Storm is building and will be BIG!'
• Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands hit by power cuts, flooding

[29 August 2019 19:58 · Chris Riotta]

Hurricane Dorian is forecast to strengthen and become a highly dangerous Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, threatening the Atlantic coast of central and south Florida where authorities canceled some commercial flights on Thursday and planned precautions at rocket launch sites along the Space Coast.

Spurred on by warm late-summer waters, Dorian is predicted to pack winds reaching 130 mph (209 kph) in 72 hours, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

That would make it a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale for measuring hurricane intensity.

The center describes Category 4 storms as capable of causing “catastrophic damage” including severe damage to well-built homes. It said in such storms, “Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed.”

Reuters

[29 August 2019 20:25 · Chris Riotta]

It's important to note there is still a chance Hurricane Dorian could miss Florida and coastal regions in the United States - though it could also arrive as a Category 4 storm on Labour Day -

[29 August 2019 20:45 · Chris Riotta]

If Hurricane Dorian does make landfall, it will certainly be historic. Analysts are continuing to urge residents in impacted regions to prepare for the worst -

[29 August 2019 21:00 · Chris Riotta]

This concludes today's live coverage on Hurricane Dorian. Be sure to check back on The Independent as our team brings you the latest developments, and prepare for the oncoming storm if you happen to be in impacted areas. 

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