After leaving Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands largely unscathed in its wake, Hurricane Dorian has its eye set on Florida’s east coast, where it is expected to arrive by Labor Day as a major Category 3 storm after being fueled by the warm Atlantic.

The US National Hurricane Center said the Category 1 Dorian was blowing maximum sustained winds of 85 mph as it moved at 13 mph about 150 miles northwest of San Juan at 5 a.m. Thursday.

The storm is expected to continue on its northwest path Thursday as it gains Category 2 strength, turn west Friday and pass near or over part of the Bahamas on Saturday en route to Florida.

President Trump on Thursday urged residents in the storm’s path to prepare and follow instructions by state and federal officials, tweeting that “it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!”

On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency and asked residents along the east coast to load up with at least seven days’ worth of supplies, such as food and water.

“All indications are that by this Labor Day weekend, a powerful hurricane will be near or over the Florida peninsula,” the Hurricane Center in Miami said in an advisory.

The US Coast Guard warned that all pleasure boats at the Port of Key West should seek safe harbor ahead of the holiday weekend.

A US Air Force base in Cape Canaveral, home to the largest spaceport in the US, entered the early stages of hurricane preparations Wednesday.

Dennis Feltgen, a Hurricane Center meteorologist in Miami, said Dorian could hit anywhere from South Florida to South Carolina.

“This will be a large storm approaching the Southeast,” he said.

Floridians have begun preparing for a likely hit, with county governments along the east-central coast distributing sandbags and many residents rushing to load up on water, canned food and emergency supplies.

Puerto Rico seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes almost two years after the devastating Hurricane Maria.

The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains susceptible to outages since it was destroyed by the Category 4 storm.

Early Thursday, Trump said, “Puerto Rico is in great shape with Hurricane Dorian taking a largely different route than anticipated.”

He added in his tweet: “Thank you to FEMA, first responders, and all, for working so hard & being so well prepared. A great result! The bad news, Florida get ready! Storm is building and will be BIG!”

With Post wires