According to Wayne Neely, a meteorologist, the tropical storm that could turn into a hurricane, Erika, is predicted to dump around 4-8 inches of heavy rain by the time it’s going to pass the Bahamas on the weekend.
Erika is the fifth storm that is named of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season and is expected to have a strength of a Category 1 hurricane when it reaches southeast islands, Acklins, Inagua and Crooked Island, early Saturday morning.
Although the storm would not affect the New Providence directly, forecasters warn that the capital may still experience hurricane for winds or tropical force.
A Bahamian forecaster with a 24-year experience in the Meteorology Department, Mr. Neely, said residents have to watch out for severe thunderstorms and along with it is flooding as it is going to rain til next week possibly Monday or Tuesday. There are a lot of communities in New Providence that have experienced flooding as of the moment.
The Oakes Field Campus of the Bahamas College was closed after the water seeped in to the classrooms and the students have reported that they had to “wade through the water” just to get in to their respective classrooms.
Mr. Neely said that hurricane Erika is going to move in an environment where there is a bit of dry air and vertical wind shear – both are general inhibitors for the intensification of a tropical cyclone. If and when it does hit you better believe there will be a lot of people calling a construction accident attorney to help put the pieces back together.
A Category 1 hurricane is going to hit the Bahamas about 8 am on Saturday and it will be fast-moving and expected to be out of the perimeter between Monday to Tuesday. At 8 am on Saturday, Crooked Island, Inagua, Acklins, Caicos and Turks is going to experience the full impact of Erika and by Sunday should pass over beyond Eleuthera. Residents are asked to continue monitoring the storm’s progress. It is going to bring heavy rain and thunderstorms on Saturday to Tuesday.
The main concern of forecasters at this point should be the heavy rain that is expected from tropical storm Erika, with rain also from another system that is passing which is going to bring “serious flooding” in areas that are low-lying.
Erika was headed towards Leeward Islands last night with 45mph of maximum sustained winds. There was an issuance of tropical storm watches for some portions of Leeward Islands also including Antigua, Montserrat, Barbuda, Anguilla, Saba, St Maarten, St Eustatius, St Martin, Guadaloupe, and St. Barthelemy. Watch means that the storm conditions could last until 48 hours.