Tropical Storm Noel to drench parts of the Caribbean
Tropical Storm Noel is expected to cross Haiti this morning, lashing the country with torrential rain potentially triggering life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.
Noel became the 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season on Sunday, prompting storm warnings across Haiti, the south of the Dominican Republic, southeast Cuba and the Bahamas, including the Turks and Caicos Islands.
While the National Hurricane Center’s latest track has the storm just steering clear of Cuba’s east coast, a hurricane watch has been issued for parts of southeast Cuba in the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin.
Noel is expected to make landfall on the southern coast of Haiti, just south of Port au Prince. Winds early on Monday morning were reported to be near 60mph (95km/h) with higher gusts. Although the storm is expected to weaken somewhat as it crosses Haiti, it may strengthen again over the next couple of days as it heads north towards the Bahamas. It is expected to reach the Bahamas on Wednesday.
With as much as 500mm (20inches) of rain possible across parts of the Caribbean, Haiti’s civil protection agency will be praying it can avoid the scale of devastation caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004. Jeanne triggered massive mudslides across northern Haiti leaving 3,000 dead and more than 200, 000 homeless.
