Tropical Storm Erika lashes Caribbean islands and heads for Florida

MIAMI: Tropical Storm Erika threatened Haiti and the Dominican Republic with heavy rain and strong winds on Friday as it swirled across the Caribbean and geared up for a run at South Florida, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Due to some likely weakening over mountainous areas, Erika was no longer forecast to make US landfall as a hurricane. It could still smack the Miami area with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph) by Sunday night, however, before sweeping northward up the Florida peninsula, affecting Orlando’s popular theme parks.
Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday ahead of Erika, noting the storm could travel “up the spine of Florida” from Sunday into next week.
On Thursday, Scott said 8,000 National Guard were ready to mobilize.
He urged residents, especially those who have moved to Florida in the decade since Hurricane Wilma, the last major storm to hit the state in 2005, to follow news reports and make possible evacuation plans.
The greatest risk over the next few days is heavy rainfall over the Dominican Republic and impoverished Haiti’s notoriously eroded hillsides, with up to 10 inches (25 cm) possible in some areas. This could cause “life-threatening flash floods and mud slides,” the Miami-based hurricane center said.
Emergency officials were searching for several missing people after rain-triggered landslides on the small, mountainous island of Dominica on Thursday, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a radio broadcast.
Overflowing rivers and landslides washed away several roads and bridges there, and Tourism Minister Robert Tonge posted photographs and video on Facebook showing widespread flooding in the capital.
For days forecasters have described Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, as unusually hard to predict due to disruption from wind patterns and its interaction over land, which weakens a storm, as well as warm water, which adds energy.
As Erika neared the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo, on Friday, its sustained winds were measured at 50 mph (80 kph), the hurricane center said.