MIAMI: Florida’s governor yesterday urged residents to stock up on at least a week’s worth of food, water and medicine and to prepare to lose power and phone service for days after Hurricane Dorian makes landfall this week.
The slow march and rising intensity of the storm, which is moving in a northwestern direction to the Bahamas, has alarmed forecasters who worry parts of Florida will be walloped by strong winds, a storm surge and heavy rain for an extended period.
“I think there’s a pretty high degree of certainty that this is going to be a major hurricane,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said from the state emergency operations centre in Tallahassee. He said residents should prepare for a “multiday event.”
Two thousand National Guard troops will have been mobilised for the hurricane by the end the day yesterday, with another 2,000 joining them today, Florida National Guard Major General James Eifert said.
Florida is under a declaration of emergency. In neighbouring Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency in 12 counties to assist with storm readiness, response and recovery.
Dorian is also expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge and flash flooding to the northwestern Bahamas, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory.
“Almost everyone has left, or is leaving today,” said Pauline Powell, 26, who was on a family vacation at the Island Seas Resort in Grand Bahama when the storm started barrelling toward the area’s pristine beaches.
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation said hotels and resorts throughout that part of the island nation have activated hurricane response programmes, which typically include boarding up beach-facing windows and encouraging guests to leave.
The Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport will close tonight and will not open until Tuesday, the ministry said.
Dorian began yesterday over the Atlantic as a Category 2 hurricane but was expected to strengthen and become a Category 3 later in the day. It had maximum sustained winds near 175kmph, according to the latest NHC advisory.
If, as expected, Dorian reaches Category 4 strength over the next two days, its winds will blow at more than 210kpmh. It is currently moving at a pace of 16kmph), giving it more time to intensify before making landfall.
Forecasters predicted it will be near the Florida peninsula late on Monday.
They expect a storm surge of as much as 10 to 15 feet above normal in some coastal waters of the Bahamas and Florida, and rainfall of about 6 to 12 inches, with up to 18 inches in some areas.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency briefed Congress on the steps it is taking to prepare for the storm.
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