Hurricane Dorian moved out over open waters early Thursday after doing limited damage in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, though forecasters warned it was becoming more dangerous while moving toward the northern Bahamas and Florida’s east coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Dorian was expected to strengthen into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane as it stayed well to the east of the southeastern and central Bahamas over the next two days. The forecast called for the storm to pass near or over the northern Bahamas on Saturday and close in on Florida by Sunday afternoon.
Early Thursday, Dorian was centred about 240 kilometres north-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said its top winds were blowing at 140 kilometres per hour as the storm moved northwest at 20 kilometres per hour.
Dennis Feltgen, a Hurricane Center meteorologist in Miami, said earlier that Dorian would strengthen and could hit anywhere from South Florida to South Carolina.
“This will be a large storm approaching the Southeast,” he said.
Here are the 5 AM AST/EDT August 29 Key Messages for Hurricane <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dorian?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Dorian</a>. For more information, visit <a href=”https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB”>https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB</a> <a href=”https://t.co/IPNcswUGBt”>pic.twitter.com/IPNcswUGBt</a>
—@NHC_Atlantic
People in Florida were starting to get ready for a possible Labour Day weekend strike, with county governments along Florida’s east-central coast distributing sandbags and residents rushing to warehouse retailers to load up on water, canned food and emergency supplies.
“All Floridians on the East Coast should have 7 days of supplies, prepare their homes & follow the track closely,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a tweet. Later Wednesday, he declared a state of emergency for the counties that could be in the storm’s path.
U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, tweeted Thursday that Dorian “will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!”
Puerto Rico largely spared damage amid ongoing recovery
The storm was a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday when it swirled through the islands of the northeastern Caribbean, causing power outages and flooding in places but doing no major damage.
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, a Category 4 storm.
Several hundred customers were without power across Puerto Rico, said Angel Figueroa, president of a union that represents power workers.
Police said an 80-year-old man in the northern town of Bayamon died Wednesday after he fell trying to climb up to his roof to clear it of debris ahead of the storm.
Before the storm, Trump sent a tweet assuring islanders that “FEMA and all others are ready, and will do a great job.”
He then added a jab at Puerto Rican officials who have accused his administration of a slow and inadequate response to Hurricane Maria: “When they do, let them know it, and give them a big Thank You — Not like last time. That includes from the incompetent Mayor of San Juan!”
The mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, tweeted that Trump needs to “calm down get out of the way and make way for those of us who are actually doing the work on the ground,” adding that maybe he “will understand this time around THIS IS NOT ABOUT HIM; THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS; THIS IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES.”