Bahamas braces to be battered by Humberto: Tropical storm eyes already devastated Caribbean islands threatening to dump up to six inches of rain and sparking fears it will devastate relief efforts as residents recover from Hurricane Dorian
The Bahamas is facing a fresh tropical storm on Saturday, complicating relief efforts after Hurricane Dorian
The storm, dubbed Humberto, is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, moving near the northwestern Bahamas on Saturday before shifting to offshore Florida after the weekend
Humberto was about 30 miles northeast of Great Abaco Island moving northwest at 7 mph at 8am Saturday
The storm is expected to bring rain in the Bahamas of two to four inches and up to six inches in some areas
By LEAH MCDONALD
DAILYMAIL.COM
14 September 2019
The devastated northern Bahama islands were facing a fresh tropical storm on Saturday, potentially complicating desperately needed relief efforts to the shattered archipelago in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.
The announcement from the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) came after it had warned early Friday that a strengthening tropical depression was heading for the same islands hit by Dorian last week.
The storm, dubbed Humberto, is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, moving very near the northwestern Bahamas on Saturday, before shifting to offshore Florida after the weekend, the Miami-based forecaster said.
Grand Bahama and Abaco are currently in the path of the strengthening weather system, according to Bahamian forecasters and were among the worst-hit by Dorian.
The system was moving east of Florida out to the Atlantic on Saturday and storm watches were discontinued for the Sunshine State overnight.
However forecasters are still warning people along the East Coast of the United States to pay attention to forecasts and warnings, said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center.
‘The models trend it more to the east, which is good. At this point we’re not calling for landfall on the U.S. coast.’
Carl Smith, a spokesman for the Bahamian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), warned the storm could have an impact on relief and recovery efforts on the islands.
‘The weather system will slow down logistics,’ Smith told a press conference in Nassau, the capital. ‘Fuel and water remain the biggest needs in Abaco.’
Humberto was generating 40 mile per hour winds, the NHC said, and was expected to become a hurricane in two or three days.
Winds of up to 60 miles per hour were expected and heavy rainfall could bring some flooding to the already saturated islands, said the Department of Meteorology’s director Trevor Basden.
The announcement that yet another storm would lash the Bahamas came as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of the dangers of climate change during a visit to the hurricane-battered archipelago.
Guterres said in a tweet he had come to the Bahamas ‘to express my solidarity with the Bahamian people’ and ‘ways we can continue supporting them.’
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