SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico– Puerto Rico activated the National Guard on Monday and canceled the start of classes in public schools, as meteorologists warned that the US territory would be hit by what is expected to soon become a tropical storm.
The National Hurricane Center said a disturbance in the Atlantic is expected to become a tropical depression later on Monday and then strengthen into a tropical storm as it approaches the northeastern Caribbean.
Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Puerto Rico, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Barts and St. Maarten.
French Caribbean authorities said the disturbance is expected to engulf Guadeloupe on Monday and pass near St. Barts and St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center said the disturbance was forecast to approach Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Tuesday night.
Forecasters warned that the system is expected to trigger flooding and landslides.
“We cannot let our guard down,” Nino Correa, Puerto Rico’s emergency management commissioner, said at a news conference.
Ernesto Morales, of the National Weather Service in San Juan, said between six and eight inches of rain is expected, with higher amounts in isolated areas. He also warned of hurricane-force wind gusts as the storm is expected to hit northeastern Puerto Rico and move across the U.S. territory late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
He urged people to prepare and remain alert given the current uncertainties about the coming system.
“This trajectory is not written in stone and will change,” he said.
In the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. urged people to take the storm seriously.
“This is a practice to make sure we’re really prepared,” he said, noting that the peak of hurricane season is yet to come.
The disturbance is forecast to become Ernesto, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
It is expected to become a hurricane early Thursday as it turns north toward Bermuda, and some forecasters warn it could strengthen into a major Category 3 storm.
The disturbance is located about 435 miles (700 kilometers) east-southeast of Antigua. It has maximum sustained winds of 55 kph (35 mph) and is moving west at 43 kph (26 mph).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year. due to record ocean temperatures. It forecast between 17 and 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
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