HAVANA — Tropical Depression Fred headed for a drenching of Cuba and the Bahamas on Thursday on a forecast track that would carry it toward South Florida as a tropical storm by Saturday.
The main threat to the U.S. appeared to be heavy rains affecting Florida and parts of the Southeast starting on Friday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Depending on Fred’s exact path, the center of the storm could travel anywhere between eastern Georgia and eastern Mississippi sometime Monday, likely as a tropical storm, according to Kevin C. Hall of The Moultrie Observer.
Justin Cox, the Colquitt County emergency management director, told The Moultrie Observer that heavy rains and flash flooding are the main issues associated with the storm.
“We have to be cognizant of an already-saturated ground, and any additional rainfall and winds will make our problems worse,” Cox told The Moultrie Observer. “Localized flash flooding is a very real possibility with this storm, as well as these ‘pop-up’ storms we tend to get late evenings. The additional rain and wind will make toppled trees and downed utility lines an issue.”
Forecasters issued a tropical storm watch Thursday evening for the Florida Keys and the state’s southwest coast.
It said 3 inches to 6 inches of rain were expected across the Florida Keys and southern peninsula by Monday, with isolated maximums of 8 inches.
The tropical storm watch is in effect for the Florida Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas, and for the southwest coast of the Florida Peninsula from Bonita Beach to Ocean Reef, forecasters said.
Already a tropical storm, Fred was weakened back to depression force 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.
Local officials reported hundreds of people were evacuated, and some buildings were damaged. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Heavy rains continued to pound Hispaniola, which the two nations share, on Thursday.
The Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph Thursday evening while centered north of Cuba’s eastern tip.
It was about 470 miles east-southeast of Key West, Florida, and 165 miles east of Camaguey, Cuba.
It was heading west-northwest at 12 mph.
Fred was expected to produce 3 inches to 5 inches of rain across the Dominican Republic and the western Bahamas, as well as 1 inch to 3 inches over Haiti, the Turks and Caicos, the eastern Bahamas and Cuba.
Fred became the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season late Tuesday as it moved past the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Rich Barak of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this report.
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