Potential storm Florence brewing in Atlantic
POSTED: 7:38 a.m. EDT, September 4, 2006
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MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A tropical depression is brewing over the open Atlantic, and meteorologists said Monday it was forecast to become the next tropical storm of the 2006 hurricane season.
The depression was located about 1,345 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, according to the National Hurricane Center.
At 5 a.m. ET, the sixth depression of the season had top sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving toward the northwest near 12 mph, forecasters said.
The depression will be named Florence if it reaches tropical storm strength with winds of at least 39 mph. Forecasters said it could become a tropical storm by Monday or Tuesday.
It comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was briefly the season's first Atlantic hurricane.
The rain and flooding that followed Ernesto claimed at least eight lives in the United States, most of them in Virginia.
A woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a portable generator, bringing Virginia's death toll from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto to six, officials said.
The woman hooked up the generator in her Newport News garage after losing electrical power during the storm, state Department of Emergency Management spokesman Marc LaFountain said. He said an open garage window did not provide adequate ventilation.
"This, sadly is something we often see after tropical storms," LaFountain said. "These generators generate enormous amounts of carbon monoxide, and it's important they be run outside."
Three people died in unrelated car crashes attributed to the storm, and a Gloucester couple were killed after a massive tree crushed their modular home.
Another death was reported in North Carolina, and in Pennsylvania, a man drowned in a rain-swollen retention basin while trying to rescue his dog.
Nearly 99,000 customers remained without power Sunday in Virginia, New York and New Jersey. (Watch damage done by Ernesto -- 1:14)
In North Carolina, volunteer evacuations continued Sunday along the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin County, some two days after Ernesto dumped 8 to 12 inches of rain on eastern parts of the state.
In the West, the remnants of Hurricane John drenched the Baja California peninsula and threatened heavy rains and flooding in parts of the U.S. Southwest.
