29005: Sprague (News) Haiti, Jamaica under alerts for Tropical Storm Ernest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jeb Sprague <jebsprague@mac.com>

 From Sprague <jebsprague@mac.com>
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/nation/
15363661.htm


Haiti, Jamaica under alerts for Tropical Storm Ernesto
By Martin Merzer

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI - Forecasters on Friday advised residents of Haiti, Jamaica and
the Cayman Islands to pay close attention to newly named Tropical
Storm Ernesto, a billowing mass of rain and gusty wind that is
advancing through the Caribbean.

At 5 p.m. EDT, a tropical storm watch was issued for the southwestern
peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic
westward to Haiti's southwest tip.

A tropical storm watch was issued for all of Jamaica, and forecasters
advised residents of the Cayman Islands and western Cuba to monitor
Ernesto's progress.

The projected track suggested that the storm would pass well south of
Florida early next week, but forecasters said that any system in that
region should be monitored.

The storm could become a hurricane by Monday.

Jamaica and the Cayman Islands stood particularly close to the
projected line of fire, with the long-range forecast bringing the
system over or near those islands Sunday and Monday as a strong
tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane.

Though the official forecast has the system growing into a Category 1
hurricane by Monday and remaining at that intensity for several days,
forecasters said that computerized models were beginning to suggest
that it could strengthen more rapidly.

''The cyclone could be significantly stronger than currently forecast
after 72 hours,'' said Jack Beven, a forecaster for the National
Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Debby weakened slightly in the distant
Atlantic, a threat to no one.

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© 2006, The Miami Herald.