MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Erika weakened slightly yesterday as it dumped torrential rain on islands in the Eastern Caribbean and appeared to be headed for the U.S. East Coast early next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Erika could reach hurricane status near Florida’s east coast by Monday morning, the Miami-based government forecaster said. It has the potential to become the first hurricane to hit Florida since Wilma in October 2005.
Heavy rains lashed the small, mountainous island of Dominica where local media reported overflowing rivers and landslides washed away several roads and bridges.
“The biggest short-term threat posed by Erika is very heavy rainfall,” the hurricane center said, noting that more than 12 inches has fallen in Dominica.
The Dominica Broad-casting Service said there were unconfirmed reports of four people missing after they were swept away by a swollen river.
Dominica’s tourism minister, Robert Tonge, posted photographs and video on Facebook showing widespread flooding in the capital and urged everyone to stay inside.
Erika was expected to produce 4 to 8 inches of rain – as much as 12 inches in some places – across portions of the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas through Friday.
While the U.S. forecasters were reasonably certain of Erika’s path, they said its intensity was harder to predict and it could fall apart as it passes over land. If it stays intact it would likely pick up strength over warm water before reaching the U.S. coast.
“Until this comes into focus, everybody from the Bahamas to Florida to the southeast coast – including Georgia and the Carolinas – has to be vigilant at least for the next several days,” said veteran South Florida weatherman Bryan Norcoss, who writes a blog for private forecaster Weather Underground.
Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was about 175 miles (280 km) west of Guadalupe with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (72 kph) as of midday. It was expected to reach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by last evening, then pass over the Dominican Republic today and continue northwest over the Bahamas.
Officials in Puerto Rico said Erika offered the prospect of relief from a recent drought, but warned of the danger of flash floods.
Lines were longer than usual at grocery stores and drug stores in the capital, San Juan, where businesses closed early on Thursday ahead of the storm.
At the grocery chain SuperMax in Old San Juan, construction workers outside the store installed aluminum protections over the windows.
Florida Governor Rick Scott held a statewide conference call with emergency officials, Florida National Guard, and local law enforcement.
Afterward, he said 8,000 National Guard were ready to mobilize and communications had been tested in anticipation of a weekend landfall.
He urged residents, especially those who have moved to Florida in the decade since Wilma, to follow news reports. Coastal residents should lay in a three-day supply of food and water, know where emergency shelters are and check on elderly or infirm friends and relatives, Scott said.
