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(CNN) - All Florida counties are in a state of emergency while the state is preparing for what could be the strongest hurricane that plagues its east coast in almost three decades.
- 🌀 Look where Dorian is right now
At 105 miles per hour (mph), Dorian is the strongest hurricane of the season in the Atlantic so far. If Monday touches land like a category 4 hurricane, as forecast, with sustained winds of around 130 mph, it will be the strongest hurricane to hit the east coast of Florida since Andrew in 1992, according to CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. Late Thursday, Dorian was a category 2 hurricane.
It will also be the fourth consecutive year that a hurricane of any force impacts Florida, the longest streak of consecutive years since the 1940s.
With the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael in 2018 still in his memories, the people of Florida do not risk it.
On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for the 67 counties in Florida. The state has 819,000 gallons of water and 1.8 million food rations ready for distribution, he told a news conference.
- When will Dorian land in Florida?
After crossing the British Virgin Islands and the United States and soaking Puerto Rico with rain on Wednesday, Dorian moved northwest into the Atlantic on Thursday night.
Warm waters are expected to strengthen the hurricane in the coming days. It is on its way to hit the island of Grand Bahama on Sunday and will probably impact somewhere on the coast of Florida or Georgia around Monday morning.
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Due to the lack of four days, the range of possibilities to touch land expands, from the Florida Keys to southeastern Georgia. And his eye could stop at sea shortly before hitting land, letting its outer bands soak much of Florida with a lot of rain, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
The affected areas in the US winds with tropical storm force of at least 39 mph will be recorded as early as Saturday night.
"People must be ready before Sunday," Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center, told CNN Thursday.
Long lines to buy gas and food
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The governor of Florida and other officials have urged residents to have seven days of food and medicine available, and coastal residents are already running out of store shelves.
On Thursday, many people were also acquiring reserve fuel along the Atlantic coast of Florida. Among them was Arthur Sanders, who made a long line to buy gasoline in Port St. Lucie.
"They were directing traffic and had part of the parking lot blocked," Sanders said.
On Wednesday, in Port Orange, 40 miles northeast of Orlando, Brooke Koontz found almost empty bread and water shelves in a Walmart. There was also a shortage of canned goods, toiletries and bananas.
Fortunately, shortly after arrival, the employees pulled out a shipment of water bottles.
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"It's over in seconds," he told CNN.
Long lines and low supplies have been seen in several stores in the Miami area, said WSVN, a CNN affiliate.
"Get water, gas, get cash from ATMs," West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James told CNN on Thursday. "The more we hear about this storm, it sounds like a serious storm."
The governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, told the residents of his state to also watch over Dorian. On Thursday, Kemp issued a state of emergency statement for 12 counties
The airlines and the army prepare
Major airlines, including Delta, American and Southwest, are allowing some passengers to modify their reservations on certain flights before Hurricane Dorian.
The US Navy said Thursday it will move more than 40 planes from Jacksonville to bases in Michigan, Ohio and Texas, to make sure Dorian doesn't reach them.
The US Air Force evacuated 16 KC-135 aircraft from MacDill Air Base, near Tampa, to McConnell Air Base, near Wichita, Kansas, according to an official.
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Florida State University was scheduled to play its seasonal opening game off campus, in Jacksonville, near the Atlantic coast. But because Dorian is approaching, the game has moved to the usual playing field in Tallahassee, further inland.
Dorian has already left the Caribbean Sea, but not before hitting the British and American Virgin Islands, first as a tropical storm and then as a category 1 hurricane on Wednesday.
Puerto Rico, still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017, expected the storm to exacerbate existing infrastructure damage, but the island was largely saved.
Omar Jiménez, LaRell Reynolds, Meg Wagner, Tina Burnside and Daniel Shepherd contributed to this report.
Hurricane Dorian
