Tropical Storm Isaac heads for Haiti, Dominican Republic
MIAMI |
(Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac headed toward the Dominican Republic
and Haiti on Friday, continuing its march across the Caribbean after
unleashing heavy rain on parts of Puerto Rico.
Isaac also posed a threat to
Florida, where it could pass near the state's Gulf Coast on Monday as
the Republican National Convention starts in Tampa.
Authorities
have not ruled out the possibility of postponing or relocating the
Republican convention if the storm takes direct aim at Tampa. But Craig
Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the
convention was not his biggest concern, at least for now.
"People
are spending a lot of time talking about that," Fugate said of the
convention. "I wish they'd be talking about making sure people in the
(Florida) Keys are getting ready and that people in southwest Florida
are getting ready," he told CNN.
The
storm could also affect U.S. energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico,
with analysts at Weather Insight, a Thomson Reuters company, giving it a
50 percent probability of moving into the heart of the oil and gas
production region.
Isaac is forecast to remain a tropical storm after crossing the Dominican Republic and Haiti and then passing over Cuba
into the Florida Straits. Many forecast models show it eventually
taking a track into the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening into a hurricane
and possibly making landfall near Alabama, the Florida Panhandle,
Louisiana or Mississippi on Tuesday.
"Isaac
will likely restrengthen when it moves over the Florida Straits and the
eastern Gulf of Mexico," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
But
the center warned it was "important not to focus on the exact track
because of forecast uncertainties and the fact that Isaac has a large
area of tropical storm force winds."
It
said Isaac was centered about 115 miles south-southeast of the
Dominican Republic's capital, Santo Domingo, as of early Friday morning.
The
storm had top sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 km per hour).
The Miami-based hurricane center said Isaac could become a hurricane on
Friday as it nears Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican
Republic and Haiti, but weaken as it moved over land.
Isaac
was expected to dump between 8 and 12 inches of rain over parts of
Hispaniola, with total accumulations up to 20 inches in some areas, the
NHC said, posing a significant threat to Haiti, which is highly prone to
flooding and mudslides because of its near-total deforestation.
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the center said in its Friday advisory.
Haiti,
the poorest country in the Americas, still has about 350,000 people
living in tents or makeshift shelters more than 2-1/2 years after a
devastating earthquake that took more than a quarter of a million lives.
Red
Cross workers toured crowded tent camps of Haitians left homeless by
the 2010 quake to warn about Isaac. Text messages were sent out to tens
of thousands of people urging them to stay away from rivers and evacuate
tent camps in case the storm hits.
Authorities
in the Dominican Republic began evacuating people living on the banks
of rivers, streams and areas vulnerable to landslides in preparation for
the approach of Isaac, whose effects were beginning to be felt with
showers in the south of the country.
In the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials also braced for flooding after Isaac passed south of the island.
NOT ENOUGH SHELTERS IN HAITI
The NHC said Isaac was moving west-northwestward at 17 mph.
"Any
slight westward versus eastward deviation makes a huge difference for
Florida," said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist who heads the
respected hurricane forecast team at Colorado State University.
Some
forecast models predict a final landfall in the Florida Panhandle, in
the northwest corner of the state, and several showed the storm passing
near Florida's Gulf Coast where Tampa is located.
Republican
convention planners said they would continue to monitor the storm
closely while staying in close contact with the National Weather
Service, Governor Rick Scott, local emergency officials and the campaign
of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Florida
has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005 and forecasts showed
Isaac was not expected to strengthen beyond a weak Category 1, with top
sustained wind speeds of about 80 mph.
-
In
Haiti, Red Cross teams, equipped with shelter and sanitation kits,
deployed to distribute emergency supplies, including cooking equipment,
water chlorination kits, and plastic sheeting and wood for temporary
shelters, said Florent Del Pinto, Haiti head of operations for the
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Some
camp residents will likely move to government-designated shelters. "But
there are not enough shelters for them all," said Del Pinto, adding the
shelters - schools, churches and other concrete buildings - could only
handle about 50 percent of the camp residents.
In
2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne killed hundreds and flooded the port city
of Gonaives with 7 feet of water in places, destroying roads and bridges
and virtually cutting it off from the rest of the country.
-
Over
the open Atlantic, Tropical Storm Joyce weakened into a depression. It
was expected to regain tropical storm strength on Monday while on a path
that may take it close to Bermuda.
(Additional
reporting by Josephine Mason in New York, Kevin Gray and David Adams in
Miami, Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and
Alessandra Rizzo)
No comments:
Post a Comment