Breaking News: As Tropical Storm Ernesto gets stronger and dangerous, it targets Puerto Rico while pounding the Northeast Caribbean….

Breaking News: As Tropical Storm Ernesto gets stronger and dangerous, it targets Puerto Rico while pounding the Northeast Caribbean….

Puerto Rico’s San Juan—As Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, authorities there shuttered schools, set up shelters, and relocated scores of the island’s threatened parrots into hurricane-proof rooms.

As Ernesto’s center approaches Bermuda from about northeast of Puerto Rico, it is predicted to intensify into a hurricane by late Tuesday. A hurricane watch was issued by forecasters for the British Virgin Islands, the United States, and the small, tourist-friendly Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami stated that a hurricane watch is still in effect since there is a possibility that Ernesto will strengthen into a hurricane when it is close to the Virgin Islands. tropical depression.

The center of the storm is predicted to cross the U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday night and move northeast and north of Puerto Rico in the late afternoon and early hours of Wednesday. After that, on Friday, it is anticipated to enter open waters and pass close to Bermuda.

People scrambled to finish securing houses and businesses as strong winds and heavy rains turned Puerto Rico’s ocean a milky turquoise.

José Rodríguez, 36, expressed his wish for a speedy resolution as he scaled the roof of his uncle’s wooden hut in Piñones, an Afro-Caribbean hamlet on Puerto Rico’s north coast, to take control of the establishment that is well-known for its fried street food.

Ernesto was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east-southeast of St. Thomas late Tuesday afternoon. It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph).

“We are going to have a lot of rain,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said as he urged people to be indoors by early Tuesday evening.

He activated the National Guard as crews across the island visited flood-prone areas and older residents as part of last-minute preparations. Meanwhile, Department of Natural Resources officials who work at breeding centers for the island’s only remaining native parrot, the Puerto Rico Amazon, moved them indoors.

Ernesto Rodríguez with the National Weather Service warned that the storm’s trajectory could change as it approaches Puerto Rico.