Cuba, Jamaica under hurricane watch
Saturday, August 26, 2006; Posted: 7:10 p.m. EDT (23:10 GMT)
Gulf Coast residents watch Ernesto with wary eye (2:37)
Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands were under hurricane watches Saturday as Tropical Storm Ernesto gained power in the Caribbean.
Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ernesto could reach hurricane status, with winds exceeding 74 mph, by Sunday night or Monday as it nears western Cuba.
Cuba issued a hurricane watch for the eastern provinces of Las Tunas, Granma, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo. (Projected path)
A watch means hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours.
Mexico's northeastern Yucatan Peninsula and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico were urged to monitor the storm.
At 5 p.m., Ernesto continued moving west-northwest at 13 mph, a slight decrease from Saturday afternoon, after a brief turn to the northeast, the National Hurricane Center said.
Ernesto's center was about 190 miles south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and about 375 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.
Maximum sustained winds were 60 mph with gusts, according to the hurricane center. Tropical storm-force winds were extending up to 115 miles from Ernesto's center.
Ernesto is expected to pass south of Hispaniola -- the island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic -- on Saturday, and close in on Jamaica on Sunday.
A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the southern coast of Hispaniola, from the Haiti-Dominican Republic border westward to the southwestern tip of Haiti.
Tides 3 feet above normal were expected in Jamaica, and the island braced for what forecasters say could be 4 to 12 inches of rainfall. In Haiti and the Dominican Republic, 3 to 8 inches of rainfall were predicted.
The storm's outer band could bring up to 3 inches of rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, forecasters said.
Ernesto's general motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours, forecasters said. That should bring the core of Ernesto south of the southern coast of Hispaniola by Saturday afternoon.
A five-day forecast has Ernesto crossing western Cuba and entering the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday Long-range forecasts aren't always reliable, because hurricanes can change course quickly.
If Ernesto reaches hurricane strength, it would be the first hurricane this season.
By this time last year, five hurricanes and 11 named storms already had formed -- and Hurricane Katrina was just days away from devastating New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on August 29. (Watch Gulf Coast residents say what they'd do if Ernesto hit -- 2:37)
