Hurricane Isaias has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves through the Northwestern Bahamas.
Isaias winds have decreased slightly with the storm expected to reach Florida overnight.
The storm snapped trees and knocked out power as it ripped through the Caribbean country on Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast.
Officials on the U.S. mainland are sterilizing evacuation centers and stocking them with protective gear in a desperate bid to avoid spurring new cases of coronavirus in the already hard-hit state.
Hurricane Isaias blew through Bahamas on Saturday as Category 1 and headed toward the Florida coast. The storm track is pictured
The storm is expected to his Miami and south Florida overnight before moving towards northern Florida and South Carolina early on Monday morning
Wind gusts of up to 50mph are expected in West Palm Beach as the storm moved up Florida's east coast on Sunday
Isaias was downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday night as it neared the eastern coast of Florida
The path of the storm remains unclear although it is believed that it will track more or less directly up the eastern seaboard
'Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,' the National Weather Service said in a flash bulletin on Saturday. 'Hurricane conditions are expected to reach the coast within the hurricane warning area in Florida tonight and will spread northward through Sunday.'
'Winds are expected to first reach tropical storm strength later today, making outside preparations difficult or dangerous,' the NWS said.
Landfall is expected in South Florida overnight with storm tracks predicting the hurricane will veer north along the coast, threatening Georgia and the Carolinas on Sunday into Monday, and reaching New York City as early as Tuesday.
A hurricane warning is in effect from Boca Raton to the Flagler/Volusia County Line in Florida.
NOAA satellite imagery shows Hurricane Isaias over the Bahamas at 9.40am EDT on Saturday. Hurricane Isaias snapped trees and knocked out power as it blew through the Bahamas on Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast
A storm surge is expected of between 2-4' feet along Fort Pierce and Melbourne on the east coast of the state
The above map shows the amount of rainfall predicted through Tuesday with 12" in the Bahamas, between 3-5" near the coast
Sea spray, sand and winds sweep across South Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach on Saturday as Isaias bears down
A beach goer attempts to set up a beach umbrella Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida as the outer bands reach the state
Red no-swimming flags fly at Lantana, Florida Municipal Beach as Hurricane Isaias approaches the Florida coast Saturday
Storm clouds are seen over the city as Hurricane Isaias approaches the east coast of Florida on Saturday in Miami
Cars drive past a sign warning of Hurricane strength weather on Interstate 95, Saturday near Boynton Beach, Florida
Tropical storm warnings are in effect from the northern Florida Keys to Boca Raton and inland and north to Orlando, Florida, including Lake Okeechobee. They also extend from the Volusia-Flagler County line to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Strong winds are currently moving across South Florida with the first band of rain from Isaias according to Weather.com.
Wind gusts between 40-60mph were reported across various South Florida locations with a 59mph wind gust measured near Dania Beach.
Florida authorities said they have prepared shelters, but didn't expect to have to evacuate people.
'The most important thing we want people to do now is remain vigilant,' said Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Further north, authorities in North Carolina ordered the evacuation of Ocracoke Island, which was slammed by last year's Hurricane Dorian, starting Saturday evening.
Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour at 11am Saturday morning, a slight decline from earlier in the day, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Florida's well-honed hurricane responses have been partly upended by its grappling with one of the country's worst outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.
The emergency operations center in Miami, usually a beehive of activity ahead of a storm, was mostly empty with plastic dividers set up between work stations and fans with ultraviolet lights hung around the room in the hope of eradicating any floating virus particles. Many emergency officials are instead working remotely.
'It's not a perfect system,' said Frank Rollason, Miami-Dade's director of emergency management, 'but what we're facing to today with COVID, we're trying to avoid packing all of those people into the emergency operations center.'
Much of Florida's Atlantic coast was under a hurricane watch on Saturday, as Isaias bore down on the state
A forecast of wind conditions on Sunday morning shows the section of Florida coast that may be hit hardest
The forecast path of the storm shows that it could hit the Carolinas by Monday and even New York City by Tuesday
Hurricane Isaias is expected to bring heavy rain as well as storm surges as it moves north from South Florida
Palm trees bend in the winds preceding Hurricane Isaias in Miami Beach on Saturday
Though there were fears the hurricane would delay the return of a historic mission to the International Space Station, NASA said on Friday that separation and splashdown would go forward as scheduled.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken took part in a farewell ceremony Saturday at the International Space Station, several hours ahead of their planned departure on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Splashdown is set for Sunday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico, and will be the first splashdown for astronauts in 45 years.
On Florida's Atlantic coast, a hurricane warning was in effect from Boca Raton, just north of Miami, about 150 miles north to the Volusia-Flagler county line. A hurricane watch was in effect from Hallendale Beach to south of Boca Raton.
The state was 'fully prepared for this and any future storm during this hurricane season,' DeSantis said, with stockpiles of personal protective equipment, generators, bottled water and meals ready to be distributed.
But DeSantis said state-run coronavirus testing sites would be closed in areas where the storm might hit.
'Our sites, because they´re outdoors with tents, if it were to get 40-, 50-mile-per-hour winds, it would just collapse,' he said. 'Safety is paramount for that.'
Workers install panels and sand bags at the entrance of a CVS Pharmacy in Miami Beach, Florida on Saturday
Bonnie Gruner's employees help board up the building she manages at in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday
Chris Nagiewicz, left, watches as his wife Mary screws in a hurricane panel on Saturday on a trailer home in Briny Breezes, FL
A boarded up home is shown Saturday in Briny Breezes, Florida. Hurricane Isaias is headed toward the Florida coast, where officials have closed beaches, parks and coronavirus testing sites
Anthony Perrone pulls the hurricane shutters closed on his home on Friday in Lake Worth, Florida. Perrone said he closed the shutters to prepare his home for the possible arrival of Hurricane Isaias
The closure of COVID-19 testing sites is concerning in a state that has been a hot spot in the United States in recent weeks. The pandemic forced officials to wrestle with social-distancing rules at the same time as disaster response.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez said each person in shelters needed to have 40 square feet and no more cafeteria-style dining would be allowed.
Any evacuees infected with the new coronavirus will be isolated in classrooms separate them from the general population, Giménez said.
Meanwhile, officials in the Bahamas cleared people out of Abaco island who have been living in temporary structures since Dorian devastated the area, killing at least 70 people.
The center of the storm is expected to move over northern Andros Island in the next hours, on to Grand Bahama Island in the northwestern Bahamas later in the day then near the east coast of Florida overnight through Sunday. It is expected to weaken slowly late Monday.
Brett Hand controls a Marine Travelift with a hand held remote to lift boats out of the water and move them onto the grounds of Palm Beach Yacht Center for safe keeping as Hurricane Isaias approaches the Florida coast Saturday
People are seen stocking up on water, in preparation for the storm in Miami on Friday. Hurricane advisory in effect for the Southeast coast of Florida. Hurricane Isaias is expected to hit South Florida in some areas as a category one on Saturday.
A Fort Lauderdale resident stocks up with groceries and water in preparation for Hurricane Isaias on Friday
Cars are seen lined up to fill up their tanks with gas at a Miami Costco on Friday in preparation for Hurricane Isaias
A hurricane warning was in effect for northwest Bahamas. Isaias was expected to drop from 4 to 8 inches of rain in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Bahamian officials said they were concerned about a Category 1 storm hitting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
'The center of COVID-19 now is in Grand Bahama,' the island´s minister, Sen. Kwasi Thompson, told government-run ZNS Bahamas. 'No one wanted to see a situation where we are now facing a hurricane.'
Paula Miller, Mercy Corps director for the Bahamas, told The Associated Press that people on the island were still standing in line for gas on Saturday ahead of the storm.
The area was still recovering from Dorian, complicating preparations for this one.
'People are doing the best they can to prepare, but a lot of businesses still have not fully repaired their roofs or their structures,' she said. 'Even a lower level storm could really set them back.'
People in the Dominican Republic clean and dry their belongings after the passage of tropical storm Isaias, with which heavy rains caused the overflowing of the Magua River in Hato Mayor
Locals try to rescue their belonging after the overflow of the Magua river caused by heavy rains caused during Isaias storm in the city of Hato Mayor, northwest of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
A man remains outside his home, where teddy bears were hanged from a window to dry after the passage of tropical storm Isaias, with which heavy rains caused the overflowing of the Magua River in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic
In the Bahamas, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis relaxed a coronavirus lockdown as a result of the storm, but imposed a 10pm to 5am curfew. He said supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and hardware stores would be open as long as weather permitted.
The Bahamas has reported more than 570 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 14 deaths. It recently barred travelers from the U.S. following a surge in cases after it reopened to international tourism.
On Thursday, while still a tropical storm, Isaias toppled trees, knocked out power, destroyed crops and caused widespread flooding and small landslides in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
One man died in the Dominican Republic, where more than 5,000 people were evacuated, hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed and more than 130 communities were cut off by floodwaters.
In Puerto Rico, the National Guard rescued at least 35 people from floodwaters that swept away one woman who remained missing.
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