NHC issues hurricane warning for Puerto Rico
Tropical Storm Fiona maintains 60-mph winds
Storm surge and a deluge from Tropical Storm Fiona plagued the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe with at least two people reportedly washed away and more than 20 people who had to be rescued by rising waters as the system threatened Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday.
In the 8 p.m. update on Saturday, the NHC said Fiona was maintaining 60-mph winds with higher gusts. The NHC has issued a hurricane warning for Puerto Rico, where its people could face “life-threatening flooding and mudslides ... during the next several days.”
The system grew in strength after passing by the northern Leeward Islands on Saturday afternoon. By the evening, its center was located about 75 miles south of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands moving west at 8 mph.
Its tropical-storm-force winds extend out 125 miles.
Fiona strengthened Friday evening after it passed into the northeastern Caribbean Sea, according the National Hurricane Center, and could gain hurricane strength before reaching Puerto
Rico’s southern coast on Sunday.
Torrential rain left behind heavy road damage on Guadeloupe with video on Twitter showing fast-moving floods flowing down streets up to washed out roads and streets flooded up to 2 feet washing away cars.
Projected rainfall had been more than 8 inches in some parts of the island.
Government officials with the French overseas department said two people were missing swept away by rising waters overnight.
“On the forecast track, the center of Fiona will move south of the U.S. Virgin Islands [Saturday] evening... and move across Puerto Rico by Sunday afternoon,” said NHC hurricane specialist Jack Beven. “Fiona will then offshore of the Dominican Republic on Monday and near or to the east of the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday.”
Already under a tropical storm warning, hurricane watches were issued for Puerto Rico as well as for parts of the Dominican Republic.
Warnings remain in place for the U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Saba, St. Maarten and parts of the Dominican Republic.
The system’s updated path forecasts it to travel away from Florida, while gaining hurricane strength ahead of landfall on the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. It’s expected to keep hurricane strength as a Category 1 system with 75 mph winds and gusts up to 90 mph as it passes over the island, approaching the Turks and Caicos and threatening the southern Bahamas early next week.
The threat of heavy rains and possible flooding faces many of the islands with as much as 16 inches in Puerto Rico and 12 inches in the Dominican Republic possible.
Saturday’s new five-day forecast has it curving even more to the north and into the Atlantic Ocean, and gaining strength as a Category 2 system by Wednesday with 90 mph sustained winds.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, a tropical wave was detected Thursday midway between the west coast of Africa and the Lesser Antilles islands. The weather system is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms, and is predicted to slowly develop late this weekend and early next week when it turns northward over the central subtropical Atlantic. The NHC gives it a 20% of forming in the five days.
Despite the low chances, their emergence coincides with Colorado State University’s release of its tropical prediction for the next two weeks, saying the tropics could get much busier with a 50% chance of above-average activity taking place. CSU also gave a 40% chance of normal activity taking place and a 10% chance of below-average activity.
Fiona could become the season’s third hurricane following hurricanes Daniella and Earl earlier this month.
What had been forecast to be an above average tropical season was mostly quiet in July and August before picking up steam on Sept. 1.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30.