Tropical Storm Dorian has now become a hurricane, experts said as it ploughed towards the US Virgin Islands.
The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) updated its status and said in a tweet that it became a hurricane as it passed near St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
Hurricane Dorian was located with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, the Miami-based weather forecaster said.
"Dorian should continue to move near or over the U.S. and British Virgin Islands this afternoon and then move over the open Atlantic well east of the southeastern Bahamas," the NHC added.
Dorian became a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday and forecasters said it could grow to Category 3 status as it nears the US mainland as early as the weekend.
The British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra were also in Dorian's path with landslides, widespread flooding and power outages possible in the US territory, which faced its first major test of emergency preparedness since the 2017 devastation of Hurricane Maria.
Dorian prompted President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency on Tuesday night and order federal assistance for local authorities.
