Puerto Rico has activated its National Guard as it braces for the Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed over the Atlantic on Monday and is expected to hit the island in the coming days.
The storm, the fifth one with a name of the season, so far had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hours and moved west-northwest. It is expected to become a hurricane early Thursday as it heads north and could become a Category 3 storm.
Island authorities have also suspended classes in public schools as forecasters warned the storm could unleash floods and landslides. It could also dump between six and eight inches of rain, with higher amounts in isolated areas.
"We cannot let our guard down," said Nino Correa, the island's emergency management commissioner. He urged people to stay alert: "This trajectory is not written in stone and will be changing," he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a hurricane season above average this year, with between 17 and 25 named storms and four to seven storms that could be category 3 or higher.
The latest one was Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph at Steinhatchee, a small village on Florida's sparsely populated Big Bend coastline. The storm has led to widespread power outages and at least four people died as a result.
In July, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane, later striking Texas as a Category 1 storm, causing at least 23 deaths and widespread power outages.
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