Hurricane Dorian, Now Category 2 Storm, Traveling Parallel to Florida Coast

After spending almost two full days hovering over the Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian made its way up to Florida early Wednesday morning, moving almost parallel to the state’s east coast.

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm was located about 95 miles east of Daytona Beach and about 135 miles southeast of Jacksonville at 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning, moving about 8 mph up the coast. The NHC expects the storm to turn toward the North by Wednesday evening and then turn toward north-northeast on Thursday morning.

According to the NHC, that turn will have the storm “move dangerously close to the Florida east coast and the Georgia coast” through Wednesday night before moving “near or over the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina Thursday through Friday morning.”

Hurricane warnings are still in effect for areas from Volusia/Brevard County in east-central Florida just northeast of Orlando to Ponte Vedra Beach and from north of the Savannah River to Surf City, North Carolina.

Florida’s travel infrastructure that was closed in preparation for Dorian’s arrival began to reopen on Tuesday afternoon — PortMiami opened for business at about 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Port Everglades followed shortly after. Port Canaveral, however, remains closed.

Orlando International Airport remains closed, while Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and North Perry Airports started to resume operations at noon on Tuesday. Miami International Airport and Jacksonville International, neither of which closed ahead of Dorian’s arrival, remain open.

There are still cancellations at airports in Florida and the Carolinas. According to data from FlightAware on Wednesday morning, 165 flights at Orlando have been canceled, along with 64 at Jacksonville International, 43 at Charleston International, 36 at Charlotte-Douglas International, and 30 at Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta.

All airports are asking passengers to check with their airline before heading to the airport and to arrive early.

After operating adjusted hours on Tuesday, Walt Disney World’s theme parks are expected to reopen for normal hours on Wednesday. Universal Orlando Resort, which also closed its theme parks early Tuesday, said it was also operating under normal hours on Wednesday.