Isaias expected to regain hurricane status
After battering the Bahamas and raking parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic with hurricane strength wind and rain, Isaias was downgraded Saturday evening to a tropical storm.
Still, it continued its slow churn toward Florida’s coastline, and state officials said the storm likely would regain its strength as the evening progressed.
“Don’t be fooled by the downgrade,” warned Gov. Ron DeSantis at a news conference.
Floridians spent Saturday preparing for wind gusts up to 80 mph and dangerous coastal surf. And forecasters said they expected Isaias to again become a Category 1 hurricane before scraping Florida’s coast.
Isaias’ projected path shifted slightly eastward, forecasters said, and was expected to possibly make landfall near Palm Beach, Jacksonville and other coastal areas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency offered federal disaster assistance to the state Saturday, a move approved by President Donald Trump, the agency announced in a statement.
Miami is no longer in the “cone” that signals the storm’s possible paths, but the National Weather Service warned that the region could still see floods from heavy rain and damage from strong winds.
Up the coast, officials in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina were closely monitoring the storm, which is expected to move north and could scrape the coasts of any of those states.
Like Florida, those three states have seen a dramatic rise in new reported cases of the coronavirus since mid-June, and more recently, health officials have warned that their health care systems could be strained beyond capacity with the flood of new patients. Emergency management officials have been drawing up new plans to deal with people fleeing amid the virus, including placing people in hotel rooms instead of congregate shelters like basketball gyms.
Even so, Keith Acree, a North Carolina emergency management spokesman, said the state was urging coastal residents to make plans to stay with family or friends further inland. “A shelter this year is not really where you want to be this year during a pandemic,” he said.
As of 5 p.m., the tropical storm was about 115 miles southeast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and moving toward the coast at about 10 mph. Its winds were swirling at about 70 mph, just under the 74 mph threshold that would make it a Category 1 hurricane.
There could be dangerous storm surges up to 4 feet high in some parts of Florida, and flooding caused by the storm led to at least one death in Puerto Rico, where a woman drowned when storms formed by Isaias dragged her away in her car in the municipality of Rincón, in the northwest of the island, the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety announced Saturday in a statement. The woman had gone missing Thursday, authorities said.
The storm is expected to weaken and be off the coast of Georgia on Monday morning, and off the coast of South Carolina by Monday evening.
Palm Beach County opened four general population centers at one middle school and three high schools Saturday morning as Hurricane Isaias continued to stretch up the Atlantic Coast. The shelters are available only to residents who live in mobile homes or “substandard” housing, the county said.
As of Saturday afternoon, there were 150 people at the shelters, officials said.
Individuals older than age 2 will be required to wear face coverings, and temperature screenings will be conducted for all residents who want to enter the shelters. The county noted that social distancing protocols would be in effect, and families staying at the shelters would be kept farther apart from each other. The county also said it would open one pet friendly shelter for animals.
Still, county officials Saturday urged residents to stay home and avoid congregating in settings like shelters, if possible.
Bill Johnson, the Emergency Management director for Palm Beach County, said Saturday that the county had issued a voluntary evacuation order for residents who live in evacuation Zone A, which includes mobile and manufactured homes.
“There is COVID in every aspect of your hurricane preparedness needs,” Johnson said at a news conference Friday. “Shelters should be considered your last resort.”
Nursing homes, already tested by the pandemic, may be vulnerable.
Three years after a dozen nursing home residents died during Hurricane Irma, Florida’s former ombudsman warned that Isaias will test nursing homes already battling the coronavirus pandemic.
The former ombudsman, Brian Lee, who now runs Families for Better Care, an advocacy group for nursing home and elder-care residents, said he doubted state officials who said the nursing homes were prepared.
“I can’t imagine that these facilities are prepped and ready to handle a pandemic and a hurricane simultaneously,” Lee said. “They are going to be over their heads and under water. It is a total recipe for disaster.”
Forecasters predicted an active hurricane season, and it seems they were right.
Because of warm ocean temperatures and other conditions this year, weather experts said in May that there would probably be more than the average of 12 named storms.
The season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is only one-third over, and Isaias is already its ninth named storm, which requires maximum sustained winds above 38 mph.
June and July are usually quiet, which means the 2020 season could approach the record of 27 named storms set in 2005 — the only time the National Hurricane Center had to use Greek letters for some names.