Hurricane Dorian could hit Florida as 140 mph monster, will impact Central Florida and South Florida

Aug. 30--Hurricane Dorian strengthened overnight and its expected Florida landfall as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane shifted south, putting South Florida and Central Florida in its projected impact zone early next week.

At 8 a.m. Friday, Hurricane Dorian had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph and was located about 260 miles east-northeast of the Southern Bahamas. It was moving to the northwest at 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the storm's center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles.

"Dorian is growing stronger, now a Category 2 storm but, will intensify later today into a Category 3 with winds over 115 mph," said WOFL-Fox 35 meteorologist Jayme King. "Central Floridians need to take this storm seriously and prepare for threats coming our way."

The current path has the storm making landfall north of West Palm Beach early Tuesday as a dangerously strong Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and gusts up to 160 mph. The storm would then move inland and slowly make its way toward Central Florida -- taking about 24 hours to reach an area just south of Kissimmee early Wednesday morning as a Category 1 storm with winds of 75 mph and gusts up to 90 mph.

-- Hurricane Dorian News

When will Hurricane Dorian hit Orlando?

By Richard Tribou

Aug 30, 2019 -- 9:37 AM

Because of the storm's slow motion, there will be greater impact from wind and rain for South and Central Florida.

"One of the biggest concerns with a slow moving hurricane like Dorian is that the dangerous weather will last a few days -- that's strong winds, heavy rainfall and storm surge," said Fox 35 meteorologist Kristin Giannas.

Added King, "Dorian looks to produce a lot of rain for Central Florida, possibly around 2 feet in some locations."

President Donald Trump 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 video he tweeted Thursday evening, comparing Dorian to Hurricane Andrew, which devastated South Florida in 1992.

Because the storm is still days away, the National Hurricane Center cautioned that its path might change.

"Dorian will likely slow down considerably as it approaches the Florida peninsula," forecasters said. "There is more spread among the deterministic models and their ensemble members during that time, with disagreement on exactly when and where Dorian will turn northwestward and northward on days 4 and 5."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency, clearing the way to bring in more fuel and call out the National Guard if necessary.

Central Floridians have already been making preparations, flooding local stores in search of bottled water, generators and other supplies that were already in high demand.

Home Depot has sent more than 160 truckloads of products to stores in Florida so far, company spokesperson Christina Cornell said.

While flavored waters and sports drinks remained available Thursday at the Walmart Supercenter at John Young Parkway and Princeton Street in Orlando, shelves of water were emptied out. Some shelves of canned goods had also thinned.

"We got batteries," said 31-year-old Christopher Hudon, an Orlando attorney. "Water has been cleaned like crows from the shelves. There's literally no water. There's only flavored water left."

The state has ordered an additional 200,000 gallons of water to bring the total to more than 1 million gallons. It pre-deployed 860,000 bottles of water to preparing counties.

The threat of winds in Orlando has prompted companies Lime and HOPR to begin removing their fleets of bicycles that are strewn across the city.

The path of the storm has coastal concerns making moves including Port Canaveral on alert and cruise lines shifting ships and changing itineraries. Also, major airlines began allowing travelers to change their reservations without a fee.

Coastal areas in the Southeast could get 6 to 12 inches of rain, with 15 inches in some places, triggering life-threatening flash floods, the hurricane center said.

Also imperiled were the Bahamas, with Dorian's expected track running just to the north of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands.

Jeff Byard, an associate administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned that Dorian is likely to "create a lot of havoc with infrastructure, power and roads," but gave assurances FEMA is prepared to handle it, even though the Trump administration is shifting hundreds of millions of dollars from FEMA and other agencies to deal with immigration at the Mexican border.

"This is going to be a big storm. We're prepared for a big response," Byard said.

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.

Dave Harris and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

-- Hurricane Dorian

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