1 storm building; 2nd one on wane
YABUCOA, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Chris formed off the Carolinas on Sunday, and the U.S. hurricane center said it was likely to grow into a hurricane while heading to the northeast, roughly parallel to the coast.
Hours later, the remnant of Tropical Storm Beryl rushed over Dominica but then dissipated, lessening the threat to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which had braced for heavy rains and strong winds less than a year after being battered by hurricanes.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said late Sunday that the system’s winds would fall below gale force during the night as it headed on a path expected to take it south of those islands. But forecasters also cautioned that people should be alert for possible heavy rain that could cause flooding or mudslides.
Beryl had been the Atlantic season’s first hurricane, then it disintegrated as a tropical storm shortly before reaching Dominica. The storm crossed directly over the island, which is still rebuilding more than nine months after Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 5 storm and killed dozens of people.
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit previously told people to store water because the government would shut down the water system as a precaution, and he warned them to stay alert and respect an islandwide curfew to remain indoors.
“We have to continue to take the situation very seriously,” he said in a public address. “Move now. Go to your relatives. … Go to the shelters.”
There was no early word on damage from the storm on Dominica. Government officials and meteorologists had said they were most worried about those still living with tarps on their roofs.
“We are in a vulnerable state,” meteorologist Marshall Alexander said.
Flooding remains a big concern for those still living in homes that have not been fully rebuilt since Maria. Lourdes De Jesus, who traveled from West Springfield, Mass., to help repair her mother’s house in southeast Yabucoa, said the roof consists of tarp and recycled zinc and leaks even during a light storm.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” she said. “We don’t have the money to spend on zinc roofing.”
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that the island could experience power failures today. He also urged people without sturdy roofs to move in with relatives or one of 24 government shelters that have opened. More than 1,500 power customers remain in the dark more than nine months after Maria, and some 60,000 people still have only tarps for roofs.
“I’m praying for all the brothers who are still living under a plastic roof,” said Alfonso Lugo in the southeastern Puerto Rico town of Humacao. “They’re the ones who are suffering the most now. They’re the ones who have been forgotten.”
Lugo lost his roof and two walls to Maria and was waiting for volunteers to secure his new roof before Beryl.
The center said there was a possibility that the remnants of Beryl could regenerate into a tropical cyclone in a few days while moving across the Bahamas.
Off the U.S. East Coast, Tropical Storm Chris was centered about 195 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, and was moving east-southeast at 2 mph. It wasn’t projected to directly threaten land over the next few days, though forecasters said it could kick up dangerous surf and rip tides.