Hurricane Dorian Live Updates: System Strengthens to Category 1 Storm

Hurricane Dorian was hitting the Virgin Islands on Wednesday, and was expected to slam into the island municipality of Culebra in Puerto Rico before moving into warm Atlantic waters, where it may strengthen into a major storm threatening the Southeastern United States.

The compact storm has been maddeningly difficult to forecast, as tends to be the case with smaller, disorganized systems.

The core of the storm, which reached hurricane strength shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time, is no longer expected to cross through Puerto Rico’s big island. Puerto Ricans had feared that Dorian would be the first real test of Puerto Rico’s revamped electrical grid. Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left the entire island without power. In some places, it took a year to restore electricity.