By Dánica Coto and Evens Sanon - The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -
Elsa stopped being a hurricane to become a tropical storm again this Saturday afternoon as it passed through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, threatening to unleash floods and landslides before continuing its passage towards Cuba and Florida.
The storm centered about 195 miles (310 kilometers) east of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving west to northwest at 28 miles per hour (44 kilometers per hour).
It had maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour
(110 kilometers per hour) when the tropical storm, which had been a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday morning, weakened during its approach to the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center based in Miami.
The uncertainty about Elsa's trajectory will be cleared with a flight of the hurricane hunter plane
July 2, 202101: 52
[Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba on alert for the advance of Tropical Storm Elsa]
The long-term forecast calls for
Elsa to head toward Florida as a tropical storm on Tuesday
, but some estimates place it in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Coast.
In Haiti, authorities used social media to alert people to the hurricane and urged them to evacuate their homes, if they lived near water or on the slopes of mountains.
"The entire country is threatened by this hurricane," the Civil Protection Agency said in a statement.
"Do your best to escape before it is too late
.
"
Elsa becomes a hurricane and this is the path she could follow in the coming days
July 2, 202102: 22
[Hurricane season will have "higher than normal" activity. And the first one is already on its way]
Haiti is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides due to widespread erosion and deforestation.
People continued to buy water and food as the storm approached, and many feared for its immediate and long-term impact on a country struggling with increased gang violence and deep political unrest.
“I am protecting myself as best I can. Civil protection is not going to do that for me, ”
said Darlene Jean-Pierre, 35, as she bought six bottles of water as well as vegetables and fruits.
“I have other concerns about what is happening on the streets ... I have to worry about gang fights.
Also, we have a hurricane.
I don't know what kind of catastrophe this is going to cause. "
A man secures his roof in Haiti in the face of the imminent arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa on July 3, 2021.
A
hurricane watch was
issued
for Jamaica that has also been replicated from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, to Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic
.
The Cuban authorities also generated an alert for the provinces of Camagüey, Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín, Las Tunas and Santiago de Cuba.
Some of those regions have seen a large number of COVID-19 infections, raising concerns that the storm could cause large groups of people to seek shelter together.
Electric poles that were toppled by Hurricane Elsa in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on July 2.
[A "more active than normal" hurricane season: experts give their forecast for 2021]
"Anticipating is the key word," said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, adding that vaccination efforts will continue.
"Let's take care of lives and property."
In the Dominican Republic, Haiti's neighbor, authorities opened
more than 2,400 shelters when meteorologists warned of heavy rains on Saturday.
Elsa is forecast to pass through the areas where the southern Haitian communities are located.
Since Friday, the storm began to tear off roofs and destroy crops, also knocked down trees and power lines in the eastern Caribbean area where damage was reported in Barbados, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which also suffered the effects of volcanic eruptions. that started in April.
At least 43 homes and three police stations were affected, said Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
"We expect this number to increase as the reports continue to come in
,
" he
said.
"We have some damage, but it could have been a lot worse."
In St. Lucia, the wind whipped through a high school destroying desks, knocking over chairs and spraying papers after blowing off the roof.
Elsa was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, it is forecast to cause 4 to 8 inches of rainfall with a total maximum of 15 inches, in some areas of southern Haiti and in Jamaica.
