MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac swirled over the Caribbean yesterday and was forecast to become a hurricane as it moved on a track that would put it off the coast of Florida on Monday, the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
The center of Isaac moved through the Leeward Islands and hurricane watches were in effect across parts of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, Haiti and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Isaac could also threaten U.S. energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico, weather experts said. It was centered about 65 miles (110 kilometres) southwest of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe last evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Isaac had top sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 kph) and could strengthen into a hurricane tonight, as it neared the coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and flood-prone Haiti. Computer forecast models showed the storm moving west-northwest across the island tomorrow, posing a severe risk of mudslides on Haiti’s denuded hillsides.
Isaac was projected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves over Cuba on Saturday and Sunday but it was uncertain exactly where it would go after that.
Some computer models showed it returning to hurricane strength and making landfall somewhere in South Florida by late Sunday or early Monday. Others forecast it tracking through the Gulf of Mexico and moving parallel to Florida’s western coastline.
At the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeast Cuba yesterday, authorities said Isaac forced the postponement of pretrial hearings that were to begin today for five prisoners accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S. military was preparing evacuation flights for today for the lawyers, paralegals, interpreters, journalists, rights monitors and family members of 9/11 victims who had traveled to the base for the hearings.
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Forecasters said it was too soon to gauge Isaac’s potential impact on Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where the Republican National Convention is to run from Monday through Thursday.
But Lixion Avila, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based hurricane center, suggested it would be foolish for anyone to think Tampa – where Republicans will nominate Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate — was out of harm’s way.
“With the convention or without the convention, I can tell you this is Aug. 22, hurricane season, and normally anywhere in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico we should monitor any system that forms,” he said.