SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico activated the National Guard and canceled the start of classes for public schools after forecasters warned that Tropical Storm Ernesto, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, would hit the U.S. territory.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Saint Bartz, and Saint Maarten.
The storm was located about 295 miles (475 km) off the coast of Antigua, had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), and was moving west-northwest at 28 mph (44 kph). Ernesto is the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Officials in the French Caribbean island said the hurricane was expected to drowning Guadeloupe on Monday and pass near St. Barthélemy and St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center said Ernesto was forecast to approach Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Tuesday evening.
Forecasters warned that the storm was expected to cause flooding and landslides.
“We cannot let our guard down,” Puerto Rico’s emergency management director, Nino Correa, said at a news conference.
Ernesto Morales of the National Weather Service in San Juan said 6 to 8 inches of rain was expected, with more in isolated areas, and warned of hurricane-force wind gusts as the storm was expected to hit northeastern Puerto Rico and cross the U.S. territory late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
He urged people to remain prepared and vigilant given the ongoing uncertainty over the trajectory of the approaching typhoon.
“This trajectory is never static, it will change,” he said.
In the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. urged residents to take the storm seriously.
“This is a practice run to see if we’re really prepared,” he said, noting that the peak of hurricane season has yet to come.
Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane early Thursday as it moves north toward Bermuda, and some forecasters have warned it could strengthen into a major Category 3 storm.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a stronger-than-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year due to record-warm waters, with 17 to 25 named storms and four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
For more NBC Latino updates, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
