Hurricane Dorian Update: President Donald Trump Urges Floridians to Listen to Local Officials Ahead of Landfall

President Donald Trump issued a stern advisory about Hurricane Doria on Sunday afternoon, asking all Floridians to obey evacuation orders and heed the local authorities. Florida is gearing up for a Category 5 hurricane in the next 36 hours, and the president hopes to see as orderly a response as possible.

Hurricane Dorian may be the worst storm in Florida in over 25 years, since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The massive storm may pass by Florida and make landfall further north, but either way, it will wreak havoc on the coast. The White House posted a video of the president on Sunday, where he urged anyone in the south-east to obey local authorities.

“I ask everyone in Hurricane Dorian’s path to heed all warnings and evacuation orders from local authorities,” he said. “It looks like they’re going to have to be giving them, unfortunately.”

The president remarked on the hurricane’s growing size and strength, as it was officially upgraded to a Category 5 on Sunday. Because of the storm’s slow pace, its path has been revised several times to account for new factors.

“It’s been lurking, it’s just been building out there,” President Trump said. “It’s been moving very slowly, and it’s a bad thing, not a good thing. The slower it moves, the bigger it is and the bigger it gets.”

The president also noted how well the preparation efforts have gone already, and hoped to see that cooperation continue as the storm rolls in.

“We want to minimize any unnecessary risk for the public, and our brave first responders have been working very hard, — Governor DeSantis in Florida — on getting fuel, getting gasoline brought in, because they’ve never seen anything like it, the rush to get so much,” he said. “Again, the coast guard, and the army, and the marines, they’ve been incredible.”

Hurricane Dorian has already brought powerful winds, torrential rains and threats of flooding to the Carribean on its way north. According to a report by CBS News, the storm is expected to coast along the eastern edge of Florida, bringing its effects to the state without the eye of the storm making landfall. Now, experts suspect that Dorian may not make landfall in the U.S. at all, though it could still devastate the communities it passes by.

Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina have all enacted states of emergency, as well as 12 counties in Georgia. So far, parts of Florida are under mandatory evacuations, with more expected in coming days.

Dorian is expected to begin affecting Florida sometime on Monday night or early on Tuesday morning. It will reach the Carolinas on Wednesday. Stay tuned for updates on the storm.