Puerto Rico Braces for Ernesto, 5th Named Atlantic Storm of 2024 Hurricane Season

Puerto Rico has activated the National Guard as the Atlantic Ocean’s fifth named storm of 2024 — Tropical Storm Ernesto — barrels through the Caribbean toward the islands.

Officials in the United States territory opened shelters, closed schools and moved dozens of Puerto Rico’s endangered parrots into hurricane-safe rooms, reported The Associated Press.

Forecasters predicted Ernesto would gain enough strength to become a hurricane, and a hurricane watch was issued for the Virgin Islands, as well as the small Puerto Rican islands of Culebra and Vieques.

“Ernesto could be near or at hurricane strength in about 24 hours,” an advisory from Miami’s National Hurricane Center said late Tuesday morning, as The Associated Press reported.

The storm is expected to move near or over the U.S. Virgin islands Tuesday evening before passing north-northeast of Puerto Rico later that day into early Wednesday.

Puerto Rico has already begun to get strong winds and heavy rains from the storm, and officials warned it would cause widespread power outages due to a power grid that has not been fully rebuilt since Hurricane Maria — a Category 4 — devastated the island in 2017.

“We expect Ernesto to be a strong tropical storm as it interacts with Puerto Rico late Tuesday night to Wednesday,” said Alex DaSilva, lead hurricane expert with AccuWeather. “There’s a chance it may even become a hurricane in the waters surrounding the island.”

Sustained winds from Ernesto had increased by 10 miles per hour to 50 mph Tuesday morning, reported CNN. Gusty winds had begun, with a 65 mph gust reported at Saint Barthélemy when the tropical storm was still approximately 100 miles away.

The storm’s strong gusts could potentially cause trees and power lines to topple and damage some structures.

Floods from heavy rains of as much as 10 inches in areas of Puerto Rico were possible, with widespread rainfall totals over the region of four to six inches. Flash flooding and mudslides were possible in the more elevated areas of southern and eastern Puerto Rico.

Albert Bryan Jr., governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, said people needed to take Ernesto seriously, The Associated Press reported.

“This is a practice run to make sure we’re really prepared,” Bryan said, emphasizing that peak hurricane season is on its way.

Some forecasters have warned Ernesto could become a major Category 3 hurricane.

An above-average hurricane season of 17 to 25 named storms has been predicted for the Atlantic by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration due to record ocean temperatures. Of these storms, four to seven were expected to become major hurricanes.

“Ocean temperatures across the Atlantic basin as a whole remain near record levels, only trailing 2023 values,” DaSilva explained. “Factors such as near-record ocean heat content levels can help to significantly contribute to the rapid intensification of hurricanes. Both Hurricane Beryl this year and Hurricane Ian in 2022 took advantage of very high sea-surface temperatures and ocean heat content, which allowed these storms to rapidly intensify as a result.”