MIAMI (AP) - A menacing Hurricane Frances crept closer to the southeastern United States on Wednesday, with forecasters calling Florida - still cleaning up after Charley - a ``prime candidate'' to be hit as early as Friday.
It would be the worst double hurricane strike on one state in at least a century.
Closing in on the Bahamas, the Category 4 storm was expected to fluctuate in intensity and could become a Category 5 storm with top sustained winds of 156 mph or higher, said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The storm could hit anywhere from South Florida to South Carolina as early as late Friday.
``This still is a huge threat to the southeast U.S. coast,'' Rhome said Wednesday. ``All indications for now is that Florida is the prime candidate.''
Records from the last century show no two Category 4 storms, which have winds of 131-155 mph, hitting a state within weeks of each other, hurricane center meteorologist Rick Knabb said.
The last time two Category 3 hurricanes, with winds of at least 111 mph, hit Florida in rapid succession was 1950. Hurricane Easy hit Tampa around Sept. 4 of that year and Hurricane King hit Miami six weeks later, on Oct. 17. It's been less than three weeks since Charley struck Aug. 13.
Craig Fugate, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, told Floridians to prepare.
Frances was forecast to plow through the Bahamas late Wednesday or Thursday before hitting the U.S. mainland. Hurricane center forecaster Jack Beven said evacuation orders were likely to be issued with warnings and watches late Wednesday, and millions of coastal residents were told to be on guard.
Many people didn't need an official head's-up. About two dozen people lined up Wednesday morning at a Home Depot store in suburban Miami, waiting to pay for items such as generators, tarps, flashlights and batteries.
``They're going pretty fast. We can't keep them in stock. As fast as plywood comes in, it's gone,'' said assistant manager Jay Virgilio, who lived in the hurricane zone when Andrew hit in 1992. His house just had broken windows, but that was enough intense weather for him.
``I hope it doesn't come this way,'' he said. ``It's one of those things, you don't know where it's going to hit.''
At 11 a.m. EDT, Frances was centered about 135 miles east of Grand Turk Island southeast of the Bahamas and 735 miles east-southeast of Palm Beach. It was moving west-northwest at 16 mph.
``There's a tremendous amount of uncertainty,'' Rhome said. ``I don't think anyone's off the hook yet.''
With landfall possible on the Atlantic Coast from one end of the state to the other, wary officials watched the clock and forecasts as they grew more refined.
Palm Beach County schools planned to decide Thursday whether classes should be canceled Friday. Jacksonville officials plan to make any decision on evacuations Friday.
``We're planning for the worst and praying for the best,'' said Chip Patterson, Duval County's emergency preparedness division chief in Jacksonville. About 240,000 people living in low-lying evacuation zones need up to 22 hours to flee in the Jacksonville area.
State and federal emergency officials prepared to repeat a disaster response three weeks after mobilizing for Charley.
``I'd like to get through with this one first before we start the next one,'' said C.W. Blosser, 37, a paramedic who stayed at a hurricane shelter in Arcadia during Hurricane Charley. ``If it comes here I'm going to fly my family to North Dakota or something like that. I don't know anybody in North Dakota and never heard anything bad happening in North Dakota, so it must be a good place.''
State officials worried about finding hotel rooms and shelters for people who may need to evacuate. Many hotel rooms in the southern half of the state are occupied by people left homeless by Hurricane Charley and out-of-state emergency workers. Some schools and community centers are still being used as shelters.
But Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they were ready.
``We have all the operations, all the resources that we need to respond to a major emergency,'' said FEMA spokesman Justo Hernandez.
Gov. Jeb Bush had already canceled his trip to the Republican National Convention because he wanted to stay behind for recovery from Charley.
With top sustained winds of 145 mph, Charley destroyed or heavily damaged more than 30,000 homes and was blamed for 27 deaths. The storm cost insurers an estimated $7.4 billion damage to homes, businesses and personal possessions such as cars. It was the worst natural disaster to hit Florida since Andrew caused $15.5 billion in insured damage and killed 15 people.
