MIAMI _ Hurricane Dorian is officially a Category 3 hurricane with a predicted landfall along Florida's southeast coast early Tuesday morning as a powerful Category 4 storm.
The 2 p.m. EDT update from the National Hurricane Center shows Dorian is strengthening in the warm Atlantic waters, with maximum sustained winds now topping 115 miles per hour, up from 110 mph at the 11 a.m. update.
"Dorian is anticipated to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane while it moves near the northwestern Bahamas and approaches the Florida peninsula into early next week," forecasters wrote.
The recent round of updates showed the storm is predicted to slow down when it reaches Florida's coast, which could mean it stalls out and dumps so much rain it can be measured in feet. The NHC predicted the southeast coast could see anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of rain, with some spots getting up to 18 inches.
There are no storm surge predictions for Florida yet, but the Bahamas is expected to see 10 to 15 feet of surge, a couple inches of rain and "dangerous waves" on Monday.
Recent predictions show that the ridge of high pressure air near Bermuda that is supposed to force Dorian into a left turn has some weaknesses, causing more uncertainty in the predictions as it gets closer to Florida. That ridge could also slow Dorian to a 4 mph crawl when it reaches Florida.
As of the 2 p.m. update, Dorian was 445 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas and 625 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida. Hurricane-force winds stretch 25 miles from the eye of the storm.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday afternoon the president had approved his request for a federal disaster declaration for the state.
"That will enable us to draw down more federal resources in anticipation of this storm," he said. "The constant in this storm ... is that this thing is getting stronger."
He warned Floridians that Dorian could be a "multi-day storm" and said officials have distributed about a million gallons of water and plan to distribute almost 2 million meals from a central warehouse hub in Orlando.
Florida National Guard commander James Eifert added that 2,000 National Guard members have been activated, and that that number would double by Saturday.
Juliet Roulhac, the director of external affairs for Florida Power & Light, said at a Broward news conference Friday that the agency "is in full storm mode" and has "pre-deployed and pre-positioned 13,000 workers" ahead of the storm. FPL is also working with other companies outside of the state to bring in more workers.
"With any storm activation we ask that you prepare for the worst and of course we all hope for the best," she said. "And in preparing for the worst, be assured that you have supplies, batteries that will sustain you for at least two weeks of power outage. We hope that does not happen, but we want you to be prepared."
