Hurricane Earl battered the Northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean on Monday and was poised to become a major Category 3 hurricane that could swipe the U.S. East Coast in the next few days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Earl had maximum winds of close to 110 mph (175 kph), just short of major hurricane status, and was moving on a track that would take it northwest, to pass east of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina in the next few days.
“It’s forecast to become a Category 3 later today,” hurricane center forecaster Jessica Schauer told Reuters.
Schauer said authorities along the U.S. eastern seaboard should closely monitor Earl’s progress.
“Right now it’s forecast to pass off the coast of Cape Hatteras, probably within about 300 miles but that forecast track can change,” she said, acknowledging that a direct hit to the North Carolina coast could not be ruled out.
On its current track, Earl posed no threat to the Gulf of Mexico, where major U.S. oil and gas installations are located.
The hurricane buffeted the northernmost Leeward Islands with rain, winds and waves as it passed on Monday.
In Antigua, some flooding in low-lying areas appeared to be the biggest problem caused.
“It’s nasty but not huge … no worries with wind or waves unless you were really unprepared,” Eli Fuller, who runs an eco-tourism company, said from Jolly Harbour in Antigua.
Residents of St. Kitts also reported wind, rain and rough seas but there were no immediate reports of serious damage.
At 8 a.m EST (1200 GMT), Earl was located about 25 miles (40 km) north-northeast of the island of St. Martin, a French overseas territory.
The hurricane center said hurricane conditions would spread westward into the Virgin Islands on Monday, and possibly into Puerto Rico later in the day.
Hovensa LLC said on Sunday it was monitoring weather forecasts at its 500,000 barrel-per-day refinery on the island of St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands. [ID:nN29134089]
During the weekend, Caribbean airline LIAT canceled 41 flights to several destinations in the eastern Caribbean and shut down its reservation service because of Earl’s approach, according to a company statement.
In the North Atlantic, Hurricane Danielle, a major Category 4 storm last week, was barely a hurricane Monday morning as its sustained winds fell to 75 mph (121 kph). The storm was expected to lose its tropical characteristics later in the day. It was about 440 miles (708 km) south of Newfoundland.
The hurricane center said a new Atlantic weather system carrying showers and thunderstorms, located about 1,050 miles (1,689 km) east of the Lesser Antilles, had a 90 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours as it moved westward.
