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What You Need to Know About Hurricane Dorian

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at American chapter.

Hurricane Dorian is in coming fast toward Florida and shows no signs of slowing down. Read below to learn everything you need to know about this record-breaking, life-threatening hurricane.

 

  1. Where did Hurricane Dorian start? 

What started out as a tropical wave in the central Atlantic has quickly escalated to a Category 4 storm with winds of up to 130 mph. Hurricane Dorian surprised the National Hurricane Center (NHC) by just how rapidly it escalated; what was deemed a Category 3 storm Friday morning became a Category 4 storm by Friday evening.

 

  1. Where has Hurricane Dorian hit so far?

On Friday, Hurricane Dorian’s eye was approximately 20 miles east of the Bahamas’s northwestern region. Luckily for the Carribean, however, the storm was relatively calm only bringing strong rains and causing power outages. The storm continues to move at 10 mph in a west-northwest direction according to the NHC.

 

  1. Where is it predicted Hurricane Dorian will hit next?

According to the NHC’s storm tracker, Hurricane Dorian should be arriving over Florida late Monday or early Tuesday with predicted wind speeds of up to 140 mph. However, where the storm will go next is a difficult question to answer. Due to the fact that Hurricane Dorian is a comparatively smaller storm, it has been proving harder to determine where it will move next. Any atmospheric changes can drastically alter the storms direction and/or speed.

 

White House briefing on Hurricane Dorian.

 

  1. What should Florida be expecting? 

While the Carribean was able to avoid the worst of the storm, Florida is not expected to get off so easy. Before the storm has even touched down in Florida, state of emergencies were put in effect — including for North Carolina and parts of Georgia as well. Millions are expected to be without power and nearly 670,000 homes in peril, just to name a few of the upcoming predicted damages Florida will sustain. 

 

A Miami Trader Joe’s stocks up on water in preparation for Hurricane Dorian.

 

If you are currently in Florida or have family living there, please take a look at Her Campus American’s article on how to prepare for a hurricane.

 

Peyton is a student at American University in Washington, D.C. and is HCAU's Editor in Chief. Majoring in journalism and double minoring in political science and creative writing, Peyton intends on graduating in May 2022. Peyton's goal is to write for a major news organization as a print or online journalist. She also wants to continue traveling, exploring and writing about her experiences. To learn more about her and her work, visit https://peytonbigora.wixsite.com/website .
To learn more about Katie or get in touch with her, please visit katiemaloneportfolio.wordpress.com/.