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Caribbean region braces for Tropical storm Chantal
Tropical storm Chantal – projected path. IMAGE/U.S. National Hurricane Center
Tropical Storm Chantal churned across the Atlantic on a course toward the Lesser Antilles, including the islands of Martinique and Saint Lucia.
The storm was 72 kilometers (45 miles) north-northwest of Barbados with top winds of 80 kmh (50 mph), moving west-northwest at 42kph (26 mph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory before 8 a.m. EDT.
Chantal is forecast to move through the Lesser Antilles today and approach the Dominican Republic tomorrow.
“Tropical storm conditions expected to reach the southeastern portion of the Dominican Republic by Wednesday morning,” the Center said in the advisory. “Tropical storm conditions are possible in Haiti by late Wednesday.”
Chantal is the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. The powerful systems can disrupt oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, petroleum refining and fuel distribution along the Gulf and East Coasts and threaten orange crops in Florida, the second-largest producer behind Brazil.
An estimated 4.2 million homes with about US$1.1 trillion in property exposure are within storm-surge risk zones along the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts, according to CoreLogic Inc. in Irvine, California, a property analysis company.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Martinique, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico as well as the Dominican Republic’s southern coast from Cabo Engano to Haiti’s border.
