Tropical Storm Ernesto heading nearer to Jamaica — Tropical Storm Ernesto churned over the open Caribbean on a course expected to pass Sunday afternoon south of Jamaica, where island residents stocked up on food and braced for possibly heavy rains.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ernesto was centered at 2 a.m. EDT Sunday about 290 miles (470 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. The storm, though slightly less organized than it was hours earlier, had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). No change in strength was forecast Sunday.
This NOAA satellite image taken Saturday, August 4, 2012 at 01:45 PM EDT shows Tropical Storm Ernesto now about 295 miles south-southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with maximum sustained winds up to 50 mph. This system shows some weakening as it continues on a westward path at 18 mph. Meanwhile in the north, an area of low pressure over the Bahamas produces more showers and thunderstorms that reach into Florida. This system has a low, 10% chance of tropical cyclone development. (AP Photo/Weather Underground)
Ernesto was moving westward at 22 mph (35 kph), the Miami-based center said early Sunday, adding a slow strengthening was expected Monday as Ernesto crawls across warm Caribbean waters.
Forecasters say Ernesto could
still grow into a hurricane early in the week as it continues along a
course forecast to take it over the coastal resorts of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Wednesday.
With forecasters predicting possible rains of up to three to six
inches in Jamaica, long lines formed at grocery stores in the island's
capital of Kingston as people bought drinking water, bread and canned
goods.
"We're going to have heavy rains, so I'm stocking up," said Marco Brown, a Kingston resident in his late 50s.
The hurricane center said Jamaica
should brace for tropical storm conditions beginning Sunday afternoon.
It said some squalls from the system would buffet the south coast of Puerto Rico as well as Hispaniola on Sunday.
Showers and occasionally heavy thunderstorms also were possible over the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the Miami center added.
Over the weekend, the Jamaican government ordered fishermen on
outlying cays to evacuate and head to the main island. The storm was
expected to pass close to Pedro Cays on Sunday evening, according to the
local Meteorological Service Office.
The storm on Friday had swirled
over the islands at the Caribbean's eastern entrance before beginning
its crossing of the open Caribbean. Dominica
closed its airport for two days, and St. Lucia ordered shops to close
for several hours, but no damage or flooding was reported on islands
affected by the storm.
Meanwhile, a new tropical storm,
Florence, formed far out in the Atlantic and began to pick up strength.
It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and was about 600
miles (960 kilometers) west of the Cape Verde Islands. The hurricane center said it could approach near hurricane strength sometime later Sunday. ( Associated Press )
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