WEEK'S WORTH OF FOOD

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to have at least a week's worth of food, water and medicine.

President Donald Trump told reporters before leaving for Camp David for the weekend: "We're thinking about Florida evacuations, but it's a little bit too soon. We'll probably make that determination on Sunday."

But Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson urged its 46,000 residents who planned to evacuate to go now.

"It's decision time now. Don't wait until I-95 north and I-75 north and the turnpike are parking lots," said Hudson, who lived through two devastating hurricanes in 2004.

Dorian's course remains unpredictable. One of Florida's last major hurricanes, 2017's Irma, swept up the peninsula, instead of hitting the east coast.

Florida residents like Jamison Weeks, general manager at Conchy Joe's Seafood in Port St. Lucie, planned on staying put.

"I'm planning on boarding up my house this evening," said Weeks. "The mood is a little tense, everybody's a little nervous and just trying to prepare as best as possible."

In the Bahamas, Freeport's international airport is set to close Friday night and not reopen until Sept. 3, amid worries Dorian will slam tourist hotspots Grand Bahama and Abaco on Saturday.

Dorian began on Friday over the Atlantic as a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. It is moving at 10 miles per hour, giving it more time to intensify before making landfall.

Two thousand National Guard troops will have been mobilized for the hurricane by the end of Friday, with 2,000 more joining them on Saturday, Florida National Guard Major General James Eifert said.

Florida officials also were making sure all nursing homes and assisted living facilities had generators.

Only one in five Florida nursing homes plans to rely on deliveries of temporary generators to keep their air conditioners running if Dorian knocks out power, a state agency said on Friday, short of the standard set by a law passed after a dozen people died in a sweltering nursing home after 2017's Hurricane Irma.

North of Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center's 400-foot launch tower was dragged inside a towering vehicle assembly building to shelter it from Dorian, according to a video posted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-owned space launch center.

- Reuters