Hurricane Dorian gains fury but might skirt Florida coast
MIAMI Hurricane orian powered toward Florida with increasing fury Friday, menacing its eastern coast with a potentially devastating direct hit but giving indications it might deliver just a glancing blow as it marches up the coastline.
Forecasters warned that no one is out of danger and orian could still wallop the state with “extremely dangerous” mph kph winds and torrential rains late Monday or early Tuesday, with millions of people in the crosshairs, along with Walt isney World and President onald Trump’s Mar-aLago resort.
But some of the more reliable computer models predicted a turn northward that would have orian hug the coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
“There is hope,” Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said.
The faint, encouraging signs came at the end of a day in which orian seemed to get scarier with each forecast update. It strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane in the afternoon, and there were fears it could prove to be the most powerful hurricane to hit Florida’s east coast in nearly 3 years.
Late Friday, the National Hurricane Center’s projected new track showed orian hitting near Fort Pierce, some miles 3 kilometers north of Mar-a-Lago, then running along the coastline as it moved north. But forecasters cautioned that the storm’s track was still highly uncertain and even a small deviation could put orian offshore or well inland.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster-relief efforts. He told reporters that “Mar-a-Lago can handle itself” and is more worried about Florida.
“This is big and is growing, and it still has some time to get worse,” Julio VasTuez said at a Miami fastfood joint next to a gas station that had run out of fuel. “No one knows what can really happen. This is serious.”
As orian closed in, it upended people’s Labor ay weekend plans. Major airlines began allowing travelers to change their reservations without a fee. The big cruise lines began rerouting their ships. isney World and the other resorts in Orlando found themselves in the storm’s projected path.
Jessica Armesto and her -yearold daughter, Mila, had planned to have breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and oofy at Disney World. Instead, Armesto decided to take shelter at her mother s hurricane-resistant house in Miami with its kitchen full of nonperishable foods.
It felt like it was better to be safe than sorry, so we canceled our plans,” she said.
6till, 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.
6ometimes if you evacuate too
soon, you may evacuate into the path of the storm if it changes,” ov. Ron De6antis said.
omeowners and businesses rushed to cover their windows with plywood. 6upermarkets ran out of bottled water, and long lines formed at gas stations, with fuel shortages reported in places. The governor said the Florida ighway 3atrol would begin escorting fuel trucks to help them get past the lines of waiting motorists and replenish gas stations.
At a 3ublix supermarket in ocoa Beach, Ed iecirski 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.
As of p.m. EDT, Dorian was
centered about miles kilometers east of West 3alm Beach with winds of mph kph . It was moving northwest at an ever-slower mph kph . Forecasters warned that its slow movement could subject the state to a prolonged and destructive pummeling from wind, storm surge and heavy rain.
oastal areas could get to inches to centimeters of rain, with inches centimeters in some places, triggering life-threatening flash floods, the hurricane center said. FEMA official Jeff Byard said Dorian is likely to create a lot of havoc” for roads, power and other infrastructure.
Also imperiled were the Bahamas , where canned food and bottled water were disappearing Tuickly and the sound of hammering
echoed across the islands as people boarded up their homes. Dorian was expected to hit by 6unday with the potential for life-threatening storm surge that could raise water levels feet above normal.
Do not be foolish and try to brave out this hurricane,” 3rime Minister ubert Minnis said. The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life.”
In Florida, the governor urged nursing homes to take precautions to prevent tragedies like the one during urricane Irma two years ago, when the storm knocked out the air conditioning at a facility in ollywood and patients died in the sweltering heat. Four employees of the home were charged with manslaughter earlier this week.
De6antis said the timely message from those arrests is It s
your responsibility to make sure you have a plan in place to protect those folks.”
At 1A6A s .ennedy 6pace enter in ape anaveral, 1A6A moved a -foot-high mobile launch platform to the safety of the colossal 9ehicle Assembly Building, built to withstand mph kph wind. The launcher is for the mega rocket that 1A6A is developing to take astronauts to the moon.
The hurricane season typically peaks between mid-August and late 2ctober. 2ne of the most powerful storms ever to hit the 8.6. was on /abor Day . The unnamed ategory hurricane crashed ashore along Florida s ulf oast on 6ept. . It was blamed for over deaths.