Hurricane Dorian Lashes Florida’s Central Coast As It Moves Away From South Florida

Sep. 4--Now that South Floridians have emerged from all hurricane warnings and watches, it's central coastal Florida's turn to take a lashing from Hurricane Dorian as it hugs the Atlantic coastline on its northwest trek, the National Hurricane Center says.

As a weakened Hurricane Dorian began its long-awaited turn to the north it took parts of Florida's coast out of danger and diminished the threat to South Florida to a few hours of blustery weather.

Late Tuesday morning Hurricane Dorian weakened to Category 2 force.

As the hurricane moved away, South Florida began a return to normalcy: Schools will open Thursday in Palm Beach County. Broward and Miami-Dade schools are opening today.

By the evening and early Wednesday, the hurricane was moving toward the north-northwest at nearly 8 mph as it pursued a course projected to parallel the southeastern U.S. coast, leaving open the possibility of landfall in Georgia or the Carolinas.

Landfall could happen Thursday in South Carolina or in North Carolina by Thursday night, NHC's deputy director Ed Rappaport said Tuesday night.

Hurricane Dorian at 5 a.m. was about 90 miles east of Daytona Beach.

Dorian was expected to speed up and to remain a powerful hurricane for the next few days, forecasters said.

Even though the entire Florida coast now lies outside the cone of possible courses for the storm's center, forecasters warn that a minor shift in direction still could subject parts of the state to hurricane-force winds. The storm is producing top winds of 105 mph, keeping it at Category 2 strength.

A northward turn by Wednesday evening is forecast with a turn toward the north-northeast expected by Thursday morning, an evening advisory said.

"On this track, the core of Hurricane Dorian will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast and the Georgia coast through tonight. The center of Dorian is forecast to move near or over the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina Thursday through Friday morning," Senior Hurricane Specialist Richard Pasch wrote in Wednesday morning's advisory.

As the weekend nears, South Floridians can expect showers, sunshine and temperatures in the 90s, forecasters said.

Dorian's power may be dwindling but its wind field had grown with tropical storm-force winds extending out to 175 miles from the hurricane's core. Its hurricane-force winds were blowing up to 60 miles from the center, according to Wednesday's update.

Palm Beach County's hurricane watch was canceled late Tuesday morning. By afternoon, a hurricane warning that extended from Jupiter Inlet north to Sebastian Inlet was downgraded to a tropical storm warning.

Evacuation orders for Palm Beach County also were lifted. Residents had been ordered out of coastal neighborhoods, which included President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club

Also canceled was a tropical storm watch for Broward County.

Further upstate Dorian was lashing the east coast of Florida as threats of dangerous storm conditions shifted north into Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on up to its border with Virginia.

After stalling over the Bahamas for more than 24 hours and subjecting the islands to a ferocious assault, the storm started to inch northwest about 7:30 a.m. at 1 mph, finally pulling away from the Bahamas and reducing the threat to South Florida.

The storm's ongoing hazards for the Bahamas include wind gusts of up to 150 mph, a storm surge 10 to 15 feet above normal with higher, destructive waves and extreme flooding from up to 30 inches of rain.

Although the official forecast does not show Dorian making landfall along Florida's east coast, the hurricane center is reminding residents and visitors that "a relatively small deviation to the left of this track could bring the core of the hurricane near or over the coastline."

Our storm coverage is being updated regularly. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.

___

(c)2019 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.