Joaquin taking aim at U.S. Northeast

Southern Ontario could get rain, winds if hurricane hits New Jersey, experts warn

WASHINGTON— Meteorologists say Hurricane Joaquin will probably grow more intense in the next 24 hours as it makes its way north from the Bahamas and nears the U.S. East Coast.

Joaquin is locked in a dance with an extraordinarily heavy rainstorm that is already drenching the Carolinas. As the two draw closer together over the next few days, the effects could be disastrous for the East Coast.

The rainstorm is the dance partner that is leading this tango, and what it does will determine where Joaquin goes and how much of the East Coast floods. Storm No. 1 could push Joaquin out to sea or pull it into the heavily crowded Northeast.

At the same time, Joaquin is feeding the storm with moisture, contributing to its torrential rain.

Meteorologists are deeply uncertain about where Joaquin will go. But they warn that the record-breaking downpours from storm No. 1 are a sure thing, at least for an area from South Carolina to Washington, D.C.

Joaquin strengthened over the Bahamas into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with 210-kilometre-per-hour winds Thursday, and computer models over the past two days have switched back and forth, sometimes showing it blowing ashore along the East Coast, sometimes showing it peeling out to sea.

The latest U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast Thursday evening had Joaquin veering away from the southeast coast and heading toward the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. The out-to-sea scenario was looking more and more likely, which could spare the northeast from drenchings as bad as those seen in the south, where flooding has submerged cars, shut down roads and led to at least one death. A woman in South Carolina died when her car was flooded. She was driving underneath an overpass when her car flooded to capacity inside.

Heavy flooding submerged cars and closed roads and power outages were reported along the Atlantic Coast throughout the day.

Some minor damage was reported by Bahamas officials late Wednesday, and islanders rushed to prepare for storm surges and heavy rain from the approaching Joaquin.

Environment Canada has predicted that the hurricane will stay over the Atlantic Ocean as it moves northward and will turn into a tropical storm with 110 km/h winds by 3 a.m. on Tuesday as it nears the New Jersey coast. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Thursday morning in advance of the storm.

If Joaquin actually touches down in the U.S., southern Ontario can expect a first wave of rain on Saturday and a second late Sunday into Monday, the Weather Network reported. The rain and wind will then move toward Atlantic Canada.

The storm will probably not have a major effect on southern Ontario, according to Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Centre at Environment Canada.

“I wouldn’t expect any major impacts for the GTA with the storm, but the eastern seaboard of the U.S. — the mid-Atlantic states and New England and even potentially Atlantic Canada — we’re going to have to keep an eye on it for probably early next week,” Robichaud told the Star on Thursday morning.

“It is possible to have a stray area of showers, not directly associated with the storm, to kind of move into southern Ontario. But what we’re looking at right now is a trend toward a more eastern track and if that actually ends up playing out, then you won’t see any impacts whatsoever,” he said.

Joaquin was predicted to turn to the north and northwest toward the United States Thursday or Friday, but forecasters were still gathering data.