Hurricane Dorian's Eye Passing East of Cape Canaveral

UPDATE: Hurricane Dorian's eye is passing to the east of Cape Canaveral, Florida.        

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the deadly storm is now about 90 miles (144 kilometers) east northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

  

Maximum sustained winds are being clocked at 110 mph (175 kph). It's moving to the north northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

  

The Miami-based weather center says a turn toward the north is forecast by Wednesday evening, followed by a turn toward the north-northeast on Thursday morning. The core of Dorian will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast and the Georgia coast through Wednesday night. The center of Dorian is forecast to move near or over the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina Thursday through Friday morning.         Earlier this week Dorian pummeled parts of the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane, leaving widespread devastation and at least seven people dead.

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Original Story: Hurricane Dorian has begun lashing parts of Florida's east coast with tropical storm force winds.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Dorian remains a Category 2 storm moving nearly parallel to Florida's east coast but offshore. It said that as of 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday, a sustained wind gust of 60 mph (95 kph) was reported recently at a weather station in Melbourne Beach, Florida.

The eye of Dorian continues to move away from Grand Bahama Island after leaving widespread devastation in parts of the Bahamas. Dorian's center is now about 105 miles (165 kilometers) east of Fort Pierce, Florida. Its top sustained winds are now at 110 mph (175 kph). The storm is moving northwest at 5 mph (7 kph).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says Hurricane Dorian is still expected to bring life-threatening storm surges.

FEMA Associate Administrator Carlos Castillo said Tuesday that residents along the U.S. East Coast should be prepared to evacuate if necessary and should heed evacuation orders from local officials.

He says: "Don't tough it out, get out."

Castillo says FEMA has over 1,600 employees deployed or on the way to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The American Red Cross says they've already opened 170 shelters and evacuation centers. Over 13,000 people are already at those facilities.

The National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard say they have also readied troops and are ready to respond once the storm hits.

The National Hurricane Center said Dorian is expected to move "dangerously close" to the Florida east coast late Tuesday through Wednesday evening and then move north to coastal Georgia and South Carolina on Wednesday night and Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Dorian has caused more than 1,300 flights to be canceled within, as well as into and out of, the U.S.

The flight tracking site FlightAware says the unusually high amount of cancellations on Monday were due mostly to the ferocious storm. At least another 1,000 cancellations are expected Tuesday, with at least half due to the closure of the Orlando International Airport. The site says a total of 50 to 100 flights canceled a day would be typical.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)