Hurricane Dorian has been upgraded to a Category 4, a major and extremely dangerous hurricane, and could now make landfall in the Carolinas.

"There's been a notable change overnight to the forecast of Dorian after Tuesday," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Twitter Saturday morning. However, the NHC also stressed that the new forecast does not preclude Dorian making landfall on the Florida coast.

Early on Saturday morning, Dorian was bearing down on the northwestern Bahamas with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and was located about 445 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida.

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Forecasters expect the hurricane will hit the east coast on Tuesday morning, while other models predict it will rip through central Florida. Dorian could unleash catastrophic winds, heavy flooding and life-threatening storm surge exacerbated by high tides at the coast.

Florida residents are scrambling to secure supplies at crowded grocery stores and waiting for hours at gas stations that are running out of fuel.

Dorian could also be the first hurricane of Category 4 or higher to hit Florida since 2018, when Hurricane Michael slammed into the Panhandle and caused widespread damage.

"Two days ago, no one was worried," said Sarah Lam, a clinical researcher who lives in Miami. "Everyone's in survival mode now."

"As soon as I went to the grocery store, shopping carts were gone, people were bringing their own luggage so they could roll the water gallons away and shoving past each other."

"But all the water was gone. And the majority of gas stations are out of gas," she added.

The entire state of Florida is under a declaration of emergency. No evacuations were ordered as of early Friday, but many are expected as the storm's path becomes clearer. If Dorian hits Florida, it would be the fourth hurricane to do so since 2016, after Hermine in 2016, Irma in 2017 and Michael in 2018.

The Florida National Guard has activated 2,500 members, with another 1,500 on standby. The state has also ordered a million gallons of water and sent 860,000 bottles of water to counties.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned residents to load up on a week's worth of food, water and medicine, as well as prepare for power outages for multiple days. On Friday, people were racing to finish storm preparations, cleaning out grocery store shelves and causing delays at gas stations as cars lined up for fuel.