The US National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Dorian has strengthened to an "extremely dangerous" category three storm and poses a "significant threat to Florida and the north‑western Bahamas".
The storm is expected to hit Florida as a 209km/h category four Hurricane.
Forecasters warned it could be the state's worst storm since category five Hurricane Andrew killed 65 people and destroyed 63,000 homes in 1992.
Dorian is projected to make landfall early next week.
The BBC reports the storm is moving slowly ‑ at just 17km/h ‑ as it crawls north‑west across the ocean surface.
Hurricanes tend to get stronger as they move over warm water like that off the Florida coast.
[Source:BBC]
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