• The National Weather Service in a tweet Sunday said Hurricane Dorian was not expected to hit the state of Alabama, directly contradicting a false claim from US President Donald Trump.
  • Earlier, Trump had tweeted: “In addition to Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”
  • The hurricane is expected to make landfall on the eastern seaboard of the US on Monday, with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina having declared states of emergency.
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The National Weather Service in a tweet Sunday rebutted US President Donald Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian would affect the state of Alabama.

“Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east,” the NWS office in Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted Sunday morning.

The NWS’ tweet came about 20 minutes after Trump claimed that Alabama was among the states expected to be hit by the storm.

As of about 6:30 a.m. ET on Monday, the message remained on the president's Twitter feed.

He also made the assertion in remarks to reporters outside the White House on Sunday.

"We don't know where it's going to hit, but we have an idea," he said. "Probably a little bit different than the original course. The original course was dead into Florida.

"Now it seems to be going up to toward South Carolina, toward North Carolina. Georgia is going to be hit. Alabama is going to get a piece of it, it looks like. But it can change its course again and it could go back more toward Florida."

Despite the correction, he also said Alabama could be affected during a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters later Sunday.

"And Alabama could even be in for at least some very strong winds and something more than that, it could be," Trump said. "This just came up, unfortunately.

"It's the size of the storm that we're talking about. So, for Alabama, just please be careful also."

On Monday morning, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the president's claims that the storm was expected to affect Alabama.

The path of Hurricane Dorian, as of 5:00 a.m. ET Monday.

Foto: The expected path of Hurricane Dorian as of 5 a.m. ET on Monday.sourceGoogle Crisis Map

Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas on Sunday and Monday, with winds recorded in excess of 175 mph and storm-surge water rising as high as 23 feet above their usual levels.

The National Hurricane Center has said the storm "will move dangerously close to the Florida east coast tonight through Wednesday evening."

Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency, and more than 1 million people have been ordered to evacuate coastal areas in all of those states except for North Carolina.

Late Sunday, Trump retweeted a message from the National Hurricane Center warning that "life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds are expected along portions of the Florida east coast through mid-week."