Hurricane Dorian strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" storm on Friday as it bore down on the Bahamas and the east coast of the US state of Florida.
Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis urged residents of the Atlantic Ocean archipelago in the path of the "very powerful and potentially life-threatening hurricane" to seek safety.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dorian, which is expected to make landfall in the Bahamas on Sunday and in Florida late Monday or Tuesday, "has strengthened to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane" on a five-level scale.
The storm has winds near 140 miles per hour (220 kilometers per hour), according to the NHC.
"A prolonged period of life-threatening storm surge and devastating hurricane-force winds are likely in portions of the northwestern Bahamas, where a hurricane warning is in effect," the NHC said.
Minnis, the Bahamas prime minister, told a press conference that the storm was life-threatening.
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"Those who refuse to evacuate place themselves in very great danger... Do not put your life and those of your loved ones at unnecessary risk.
"Do not be foolish and try to brave out this hurricane," Minnis said. "The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life." With the path of the storm still uncertain, coastal Florida residents were not under evacuation orders yet but stocked up on food, water and other supplies and made preparations to flee their homes.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a statewide declaration of emergency and urged its millions of residents to prepare for what he said could be a "major event."