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.
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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 3 hurricane as it passes near or over the northern Bahamas on Saturday, before hitting Florida on Sunday.
"We're happy because there are no damages to report," said William Solis, the mayor of the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra. He said only one community lost power.
Dorian caused an islandwide blackout in St Thomas and St John in the US Virgin Islands and scattered power outages in St Croix, government spokesman Richard Motta said. The storm also downed trees and at least one electric pole in St Thomas, he said, adding that there were no reports of major flooding.
"We are grateful that it wasn't a stronger storm," he said.
There were no reports of serious damage in the British Virgin Islands, where governor Augustus Jaspert said crews were already clearing roads and inspecting infrastructure by late Wednesday afternoon.
Early Thursday, Dorian was centered about 150 miles north-northwest of San Juan. The National Hurricane Center said its top winds were blowing at 85mph as the storm moved northwest at 13mph.
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.
"All Floridians on the East Coast should have 7 days of supplies, prepare their homes & follow the track closely," governor 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.
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 3.2m inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria, a Category 4 storm.
Ramonita Torres, a thin, stooped, 74-year-old who lives by herself in the impoverished, flood-prone neighborhood of Las Monjas in the capital of San Juan, was still trying to rebuild the home she nearly lost after Maria but was not able to secure the pieces of zinc that now serve as her roof.
"There's no money for that," she said, shaking her head.
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 on Wednesday after he fell trying to climb up to his roof to clear it of debris ahead of the storm.
Hurricane Dorian is gaining strength at it approaches Florida, with forecasters warning it could grow into a dangerous storm before it hits the east coast state.
The hurricane has moved out into open waters after hitting Puerto Ricoand 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 3 hurricane as it passes near or over the northern Bahamas on Saturday, before hitting Florida on Sunday.
The storm was a Category 1 hurricane when it swirled through the islands of the northeastern Caribbean on Wednesday.
Hurricane Dorian looks like it will turn into a Category 3 storm by the time it reaches the shores of Florida -
Here's the latest out of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands via the AP after Hurricane Dorian largely skipped over the region -
Hurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region Wednesday night, setting its sights on the US mainland as it threatened to grow into a dangerous Category 4 storm.
Power outages and flooding were reported across the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra after Dorian hit St. Thomas as a Category 1 storm.
“We’re happy because there are no damages to report,” Culebra Mayor William Solís told The Associated Press, noting that only one community lost power.
Meanwhile, Dorian caused an island-wide blackout in St. Thomas and St. John in the US Virgin Islands, and scattered power outages in St. Croix, government spokesman Richard Motta told AP. In addition, the storm downed trees and at least one electric post in St. Thomas, he said, adding that there were no reports of major flooding.
