HURRICANE DORIAN Growing storm puts 10 million people in peril
MIAMI — An increasingly alarming Hurricane Dorian menaced a corridor of some 10 million people — and put Walt Disney World and President Trump’s MaraLago resort in the crosshairs — as it steamed toward Florida on Friday with the potential to become the most powerful storm to hit the state’s east coast in nearly 30 years.
Getting scarier with seemingly every update from forecasters, Dorian strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane, and there were fears it could prove to be the most powerful hurricane since Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 that obliterated thousands of homes south of Miami with winds topping 165 mph in 1992.
Late Friday, the National Hurricane Center’s projected new track showed Dorian hitting near Fort Pierce, some 70 miles north of MaraLago, then running along the coastline as it moved north. But forecasters cautioned that the storm’s track was still highly uncertain and even a small deviation could put Dorian offshore or well inland.
Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disasterrelief efforts. He told reporters that “MaraLago can handle itself ” and is more worried about Florida.
As Dorian closed in, it played havoc with Labor Day weekend plans. Major airlines began allowing travelers to change their reservations without a fee. The big cruise lines began rerouting their ships. Disney World and the other resorts in Orlando found themselves in the storm’s projected path.
Still, with Dorian days away and its track uncertain, Disney and other major resorts held off announcing any closings, and Florida authorities ordered no immediate mass evacuations.
“Sometimes if you evacuate too soon, you may evacuate into the path of the storm if it changes,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
An estimated 10 million people live in the 13 Florida counties with the highest likelihood of seeing hurricaneforce winds from Dorian by Wednesday morning. After passing through Florida, it is expected to rake the Southeast coast through the Carolinas.
Also imperiled were the Bahamas, where canned food and bottled water were disappearing quickly and the sound of hammering echoed across the islands as people boarded up their homes.
The hurricane season typically peaks between midAugust 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 more than 400 deaths.