Residents on Florida’s west coast are bracing for a smackdown from Tropical Storm Elsa as it headed for landfall in Cuba on Monday after battering a string of islands across the Caribbean.
The National Hurricane Center extended its tropical-storm warnings and watches north along the Sunshine State’s western edge Monday. Gov. Ron DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade, the site of last month’s condo-building collapse.
A storm-surge watch was in effect from Bonita Springs about 15 miles north of Naples to Ochlockonee Bay in the Florida panhandle.
As of Monday afternoon, Elsa was about 20 miles east-southeast of Cayo Largo, Cuba, near the western tip of the island and about 140 miles outside of Havana, the National Hurricane Center said.
A state of emergency has been declared in 15 counties in Florida as Tropical Storm Elsa moves toward the coast. RAMMB/NOAA/NESDIS/AFP via Getty ImagesThe storm is expected to make landfall on Cuba’s central shore by mid-afternoon and cross over by Monday night before heading north to Florida on Tuesday.
Elsa’s maximum sustained winds were about 65 mph Monday afternoon but are expected to weaken once the storm makes landfall in Cuba. Some “slight re-strengthening” is possible when it reaches the Florida Straits and the warm waters of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, the agency said.
Tropical Storm Elsa passes through Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. EPA/Orlando BarriaBy Sunday, officials in Cuba had evacuated 180,000 people as the island prepared for heavy flooding after the storm killed three people over the weekend.
One person was killed on St. Lucia and a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died in the Domincian Republic on Saturday after walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center.
On Saturday morning, Elsa was still a Category 1 hurricane as it wreaked havoc across the Caribbean, particularly in Barbados where more than 1,100 residents saw their homes damaged.
Volcanic ash and mud fill a road following the passing of Hurricane Elsa, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean. REUTERS/Robertson S. HenryIn Haiti, where widespread erosion and deforestation has made the country particularly vulnerable to floods and landslides, three people were injured by downed trees.
Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, according to Brian McNoldy, a University of Miami hurricane researcher.
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