MIAMI — Unsure of where Hurricane Dorian might strike, Florida residents watched the increasingly dire forecast with a sense of helplessness Friday and braced for what could be the most powerful storm to hit the state's east coast in nearly 30 years.
AAA says there's plenty of gas in Florida as Hurricane Dorian approaches. It's just a matter of getting it to the state's gas stations.
The auto and travel service group said Friday in a statement that retailers are having trouble keeping up with surging demand since gas stations can only hold so much fuel at a time.
AAA says Florida will continue to get shipments of gas as long as its ports stay open.
The primary delivery points are ports in Jacksonville, Tampa, and Fort Lauderdale. From the ports, the fuel is delivered to gas stations by tanker trucks.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered state troopers to escort the trucks to the gas stations.
Dorian strengthened to a major Category 3 hurricane Friday, capable of inflicting devastating damage. It is expected to reach the Florida coast by late Monday or early Tuesday.
Hurricane Dorian has strengthened to a major Category 3 storm. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the hurricane is "extremely dangerous" and poses a significant threat to Florida and the northwestern Bahamas.
Dorian was located 445 miles east of the northwest Bahamas at 2 p.m. EDT on Friday. It had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was moving northwest at 10 mph.
A hurricane watch was in effect for northwestern Bahamas. Hurricane conditions are possible by Sunday.
The center said additional strengthening is expected as the storm approaches the Florida peninsula.
President Donald Trump has declared an emergency in the state of Florida as it braces for the brunt of Hurricane Dorian .
Trump, whose Florida properties could sustain damage, has warned that Dorian could be an "absolute monster."
In issuing the emergency declaration, Trump has ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts responding to Dorian. The storm is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 form and slam the Florida coast late Monday or early Tuesday.
Trump canceled a weekend trip to Poland so he could stay in Washington to monitor the storm.
The sounds of hammers banging into plywood and cash registers dinging are echoing across the Bahamas as the archipelago that lies southeast of Florida rushes to prepare for Hurricane Dorian .
The Category 2 storm is expected to strengthen in its approach to the northwest Bahamas on Saturday and then move over or near that region Sunday.
Dorian was located 480 miles east of the northwest Bahamas at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday. It had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph and was moving northwest at 10 mph.
A hurricane watch was in effect for northwestern Bahamas, where long lines formed at gas stations and grocery stores Friday. Supplies like canned food and bottled water were quickly disappearing in Grand Bahama Island.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urges residents to listen to their local officials as they decide whether to evacuate before Hurricane Dorian hits the state early next week.
At a Friday briefing in Tallahassee, DeSantis said the storm's uncertain path and the fact that the impacts from Dorian won't be felt as early as initially anticipated means county emergency management officials are "taking the time to digest what it means and then make decisions."
The governor said there will be evacuations. But he added that if people evacuate too soon, they could be heading into the path of the storm if the path changes.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says it's concerned by Hurricane Dorian's slow motion as it approaches Florida's coast.
The Hurricane Center says slow movement by the storm as it hits Florida would put parts of the state "at an increasing risk of a prolonged, drawn-out event of strong winds, dangerous storm surge and heavy rainfall."
The storm is expected to increase to a major Category 3 hurricane later in the day Friday and could hit the U.S. on Tuesday as a Category 4 storm.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency, clearing the way to bring in more fuel. Georgia's governor has followed suit.
Hurricane Dorian has gotten a little stronger as it moves toward Florida's East Coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm's maximum sustained winds increased Friday morning to near 110 mph. The Hurricane Center says more strengthening is forecast and Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane later in the day.
Dorian is centered about 255 miles east-northeast of the southeastern Bahamas and is moving northwest near 12 mph.
With Hurricane Dorian heading toward Florida's East Coast, Florida Power and Light has activated its emergency response plan.
The company says in a news release that it has secured some 13,000 employees and additional personnel to help restore power after the storm hits. They're also working with utility companies across the country to pre-position crews and additional equipment in advance of Dorian's landfall.
FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy said the company operates more than 48,000 miles of overhead powerlines across the state. The company says to prepare for power outages because of all the trees that surround the power lines.
President Donald Trump - whose Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach was in the crosshairs - warned it could be an "absolute monster."
"All indications are it's going to hit very hard and it's going to be very big," Trump said in a tweeted video, comparing Dorian to Hurricane Andrew, which obliterated thousands of homes south of Miami with winds topping 165 mph in 1992.
The National Hurricane Center said the Category 2 storm is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 with winds of almost 140 mph and slam the coast late Monday or early Tuesday - nearly 10 mph faster and a day later than previously forecast, as Dorian's forward motion began to slow.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster-relief efforts.
The hurricane center's projected track showed the storm hitting around Palm Beach County, the site of Mar-a-Lago. But predicting its course with any confidence this far out is difficult, and forecasters cautioned that all of Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, could be in harm's way.
Forecasters warned, too, that the storm's slow movement could subject the state to a drawn-out pummeling from wind, storm surge and heavy rain.
Dorian played havoc with people's Labor Day weekend plans. Major airlines began allowing travelers to change their reservations without a fee. Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian began rerouting their cruise ships. Disney World in Orlando found itself in the storm's projected path.
Jessica Armesto and her 1-year-old daughter, Mila, had planned to have breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy at Disney World. Instead, Armesto decided to take shelter at her mother's hurricane-resistant house in Miami with a kitchen full of nonperishable foods in case the power goes out.
"It felt like it was better to be safe than sorry, so we canceled our plans," Armesto said.
With the storm still days away, Florida authorities held off ordering any mass evacuations. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that if people were told to evacuate now and Dorian changed course, they could find themselves heading into the storm - something that happened during previous hurricanes.
Supermarkets ran out of bottled water and long lines formed at gas stations, with fuel shortages were reported in some places. But the governor said the Florida Highway Patrol would begin escorting fuel trucks to help them get past the lines of waiting motorists and replenish gas stations.
At a Publix supermarket in Cocoa Beach, Ed Ciecirski in 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," the 69-year-old Ciecirski said. But he said he was used to commotion after working for years as a supervisor for the post office.
Josefine Larrauri went to a Publix supermarket in Miami only to find empty shelves in the water section.
"I feel helpless because the whole coast is threatened," she said. "What's the use of going all the way to Georgia if it can land there?"
Feeding on the warm waters in the open ocean, Dorian steamed toward the U.S. after rolling through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where it inflicted less damage than feared but was blamed for at least one death.
As of midday Friday, Dorian was centered about 660 miles east of West Palm Beach with winds of 110 mph and was moving northwest at a slowed-down 10 mph. Forecasters said it was expected to keep on strengthening and become a Category 3 later in the day.
Coastal areas in the Southeast could get 6 to 12 inches of rain, with 18 inches in some places, triggering life-threatening flash floods, the hurricane center said.
Also imperiled were the Bahamas, where the sound of hammering echoed across the islands as people boarded up their homes with plywood. Canned food and bottled water were disappearing quickly. The storm was expected to hit by Sunday.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, NASA began slowly moving a 380-foot-high mobile launch platform to the safety of the colossal Vehicle Assembly Building, built to withstand 125 mph wind. The launcher is for the mega rocket that NASA is developing to take astronauts to the moon.
The hurricane season typically peaks between mid-August and late October. One of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. was on Labor Day 1935. The unnamed Category 5 hurricane crashed ashore along Florida's Gulf Coast on Sept. 2. It was blamed for over 400 deaths.