TROPICAL depression Fred is strengthening and could regain tropical storm status on Friday before smashing Florida on Saturday, forecasters said.
The system was dropping heavy rain over parts of Cuba, where it was expected to keep moving along the island’s northern coast through Friday night.
The main threats were rain and flooding. A tropical storm warning was issued Friday morning for the Florida Keys and Florida Bay. A tropical storm watch was in place for southwest Florida and parts of Cuba.
The hurricane center said 3 to 7 inches of rain were expected across the Florida Keys and southern peninsula by Monday, with isolated maximums of 10 inches.
Once a tropical storm, Fred weakened back to a depression by its spin over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power to some 400,000 customers and caused flooding that forced officials to shut down part of the country’s aqueduct system, interrupting water service for hundreds of thousands of people.
Local officials reported hundreds of people were evacuated and some buildings were damaged. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Read our Tropical Storm Fred live blog for the latest news and updates…
- Julia Fields
'RECORD-SETTING START'
“After a record-setting start, the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season does not show any signs of relenting as it enters the peak months ahead,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said, according to a press release.
- Julia Fields
'ABOVE AVERAGE' STORM SEASON
Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported there was a 65 per cent chance of an "above-average" storm season, with a 70 per cent probability of 15-21 named storms.
Seven to 10 of the hurricanes could reach Category 3, 4 or 5 strengths.
- Julia Fields
13,000 CUSTOMERS WITHOUT POWER
Even as tropical storm warnings were discontinued in many US territories after Fred weakened, the storms already hit the Puerto Rican islands with rain and left 13,000 customers without power.
- Julia Fields
'RAPID RIVER RISES'
For Fred, the concern is the potential urban areas to experience river conditions, along with actual “rapid river rises.”
The NHC projects Monday the Florida Keys and southern Peninsula could see 3 to as much as 8 inches of rain brought on by “heavy rainfall.”
Conditions in the ocean are also expected to become more torrential in the days ahead of Fred’s US landing.
The Dominican Republic, US Virgin Island and Puerto Rico could experience “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
- Julia Fields
CHANCE OF HITTING FLORIDA ON FRIDAY
On Friday the storm is expected to turn northward, with a chance of making landfall along the west coast of southern Florida.
The storm follows Elsa, which became the earliest fifth named storm on record, beating out last year’s Eduardo which formed on July 6, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
- Julia Fields
FLASH FLOODS
As of Wednesday, Fred's already caused flash flooding conditions in the Dominican Republic and other countries like Haiti and Cuba are also expected to get dangerously drenched.
Around 300,000 customers' power blacked out and more than a half-million were being affected by the rainfalls causing rising rivers that shut down part of the aqueduct system, government officials reported.
- Julia Fields
WIND SPEED
The winds maxed out at 40MPH before dropping to 35 MPH.
For the storm to graduate to a hurricane, the sustained surface winds would need to climb to 74 MPH or greater, according to the National Weather Service.
- Julia Fields
55 MILES FROM HAITI
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported Fred was 55 miles southeast of Cap Haitien Haiti at a speed of 15 MPH.
The system was expected to stay over Hispaniola overnight into Thursday.
It would then hit the Turks and Caicos Islands before reaching the Bahamas and then Cuba on Thursday night into Friday.
- Julia Fields
STORM TRAJECTORY HEADING WEST
The governor appeared to be attempting to dismiss the potency of Fred, as he included a recent radar photo showing the storm trajectory drifting west, with the Suncoast region of the state occupying most of the storm’s cone.
The cities facing the Gulf of Mexico include Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg and Clearwater among others that could be most vulnerable.
- Julia Fields
TROPICAL STORM FRED SET TO HIT THIS WEEKEND
Tropical Storm Fred is on course to flood parts of Florida this weekend and Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents to “review their disaster plans.”
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