 SAN
JUAN, Puerto Rico –– Compact, quick-moving Debby became
the first hurricane to make landfall this season, hitting several
small Caribbean islands Tuesday on a northwesterly route that
menaced Puerto Rico and the Bahamas archipelago.
Forecasters
said it was too early to gauge the threat to the U.S. mainland.
With winds
up to 75 mph, Debby was a Category 1 hurricane, apparently causing
little damage on Antigua, Anguilla and other small islands Tuesday
morning. It then made a slight – but crucial – turn
to the north that meant populous Puerto Rico and the vulnerable
Dominican Republic could be spared the worst.
"We've
fared well. I'm looking outside at my garden, which was devastated
by Hurricane Lenny last year, and it still has flowers,"
said Glen Holm, director of the tourism bureau on the Dutch island
of Saba.
On nearby
St. Maarten, battered by hurricanes in recent years, a curfew
was lifted and meteorologist Ashford James celebrated the passage
of "Little Debby."
Still, the
threat was sufficient to disrupt life throughout the northern
Caribbean as residents, tourists, businesses and authorities sprang
into the routine – terrifying to some, exhilarating to others
– of bracing for a storm strike.
A 78-year-old
San Juan man died Tuesday, Puerto Rican police reported, when
he fell off a roof as he tried to dismantle a television antenna.
The U.S. Virgin
Islands declared a curfew and requested federal help, and a major
oil refinery was partially shut down. Airlines canceled flights,
schools and banks closed, storekeepers nailed plywood to windows
and cruise lines diverted ships.
At 7 p.m.
EDT, Debby was centered about 60 miles northwest of San Juan,
Puerto Rico. It was moving west-northwest near 18 mph, slower
than its 21 mph pace a few hours earlier, but still carrying maximum
winds of 75 mph, with higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extended
25 miles from the storm's center and tropical storm-force winds
another 175 miles.
Forecasters
were trying to determine if the storm would have a serious impact
on the U.S. mainland.
"The
center will likely be approaching us (Florida) by Friday morning.
If it stays on our track, we've got Wednesday and Thursday to
prepare," Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane
Center in Miami, told AP Network News.
In Puerto
Rico, a U.S. territory of 4 million people, there was relief as
Debby's eye passed just north of the island. Still, officials
warned heavy rains could come late in the afternoon, causing life-threatening
flash floods and mudslides, and that water spouts could come ashore
as isolated tornadoes.
"We're
forecasting 4 to 6 inches (of rain), and they could have some
locally heavier amounts up to 10 inches," Mayfield said.
The U.S. Navy
abandoned exercises near the outlying island of Vieques, moving
10 ships and two submarines 300 miles south.
Hurricane
warnings were posted for the north coast of the Dominican Republic,
the British Turks and Caicos islands and the southeastern Bahamas,
and a hurricane watch was in effect for the central Bahamas, northern
Haiti and northeastern Cuba. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
maintained tropical storm warnings.
The twin-island
nation of St. Kitts and Nevis was spared, enabling the continuation
of Carifesta, a 35-nation arts and music festival that began Thursday.
In the U.S.
Virgin Islands the storm made little impact but a few power outages.
On St. Croix island, HOVENSA, one of the largest oil refineries
in the Western Hemisphere, shut down some processing units, said
spokesman Alex Moorhead.
In Puerto
Rico, tourists boarded early morning flights from San Juan for
the U.S. mainland.
Lane Goldberg,
16, of Westport, Conn., was with a youth group trying to get home
after working on community service projects in Tortola.
"It's
been crazy, some kids were crying, kids were freaking out, parents
were freaking out," Goldberg said. He was bumped from four
flights at San Juan's airport.
Others were
more relaxed.
"I hope
it's over soon, because I need a suntan by Sunday," said
Diana Chiquito of New York City, sunbathing on San Juan's Condado
beach. Offshore, surfers enjoyed the higher waves.
Still churning
in the northern Atlantic, hundreds of miles off Newfoundland,
was Hurricane Alberto, the longest-lived August tropical storm
on record. It formed Aug. 4.
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