Omar strengthened into a hurricane and took aim at the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico yesterday after drenching the southeastern Caribbean.
Authorities issued a hurricane warning for the US Virgin islands as well as Puerto Rico’s Vieques and Culebra islands.
Hurricane warnings were also in place for St Martin, the British Virgin Islands, St Kitts and Nevis and other islands.
PHOTO: AP
Officials in Puerto Rico, already soaked from several days of rain, warned residents to prepare for a lot more, and medical authorities appealed for blood donations for possible casualties.
Omar was a Category 1 hurricane with winds near 120kph, and the US National Hurricane Center in Miami projected it would strengthen further.
The center said the storm would likely pass by Puerto Rico overnight yesterday, and possibly deliver a direct blow to the US Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands.
In the US Virgin Islands, residents scrambled to stock up on batteries, water and canned goods.
Emergency management director Mark Walters urged islanders to take the warnings seriously.
“This is the time to take those precautions, in terms of getting your family and your personal selves ready for the storm,” he said.
Classes and ferry services were canceled in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
The hurricane center said Omar was expected to plow over the northeastern Caribbean islands then head into the central North Atlantic, well away from the US mainland.
At 2am EDT on Tuesday, Omar’s center was located about 495km south-southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico and was moving northeast near 9kph.
While Omar menaced Puerto Rico, a tropical depression developed just off Honduras. The 16th depression of the season, which will be called Paloma if it strengthens into a tropical storm, was expected to come ashore somewhere between eastern Honduras and Belize.
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