By Jenny Staletovich
Miami Herald
MIAMI — Haiti and the Dominican Republic braced for Tropical Storm Erika Friday morning as it churned westward on a course that could have the storm making landfall in southwest Florida Monday morning.
While Erika is no longer forecast to be a hurricane as it nears Florida, the storm could still bring heavy rain and high winds. At 11 a.m., Erika was located about 65 miles south, southeast of Santo Domingo, with sustained winds of 50 mph. Gusts as high as 40 mph have been recorded in Punta Cana, on the Dominican Republic’s eastern coast.
The storm was moving just under 18 mph on a track that continues to shift westward. Forecasters believe the center of Erika will pass over the Dominican Republic this afternoon, near the Turks and Caicos Islands tonight, and close to the central and northwestern Bahamas over the weekend.
As it moves over land, forecasters expect Erika to weaken and not gain more strength Saturday. Still, Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency early Friday as the storm heads toward Florida.
On Friday, Scott visited the Miami-Dade County Emergency Operations Center to meet with emergency managers and Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Afterward, Scott said Florida is more likely to get less wind, but heavy rain as the storm shifts west. The National Guard has been alerted, with about 8,000 members ready to mobilize if needed, he said.
“We’ve got concerns all across the state because we know it’s going to be coming clear across the state,” he said. “There’s so many people who’ve moved here since we had a hurricane. That’s one of our big concerns.”
The storm -- which killed at least 12 as it passed over the island of Dominica -- could dump three to six inches of rain on Hispaniola Friday. As much as 10 inches could fall over the mountainous island, raising concerns about flash floods and mud slides. On Friday Haiti disaster experts continued to warn people to remain alert.
“It has the capacity to bring a lot of rain,” chief meteorologist Ronald Semelfort said.
With the entire country under threat, the Civil Protection Office has been posting updates on Twitter and airing radio spots concerning the possible dangers and storm’s track.
Over the next 12 to 24 hours, forecasters say the combination of wind shear and high mountains could shred the storm. If it does survive, however, they warn Erika could still rebound Sunday when wind shear dies down and estimate winds could top 60 mph in three days by its estimated Monday landfall in Florida.
With the storm’s future track and strength more certain, emergency managers across the state began making preparations. Gimenez will hold a press conference Friday afternoon. The state’s Division of Emergency Management also kicked into gear, urging residents to visit its website for help making plans.
Miami-Dade school officials say students will have to wait until the weekend to learn whether schools will open Monday.
Since buses can’t operate in winds of 39 miles per hour or more, officials will monitor forecasts for the district, where more than 60,000 students ride school buses in Miami-Dade. Another factor: whether schools will be used as shelters for people who have to evacuate.
“For Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the safety and security of students and staff is our number one priority, and will always be the most important factor in our decisions,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement.
Should the storm hit, the district is hoping a new electronic reporting system for principals will make reopening schools quicker and easier. A new app will allow school leaders report damages or problems quickly.
The school district is posting updates on its website at www.dadeschools.net, on Twitter (@mdcps) and its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/miamischools.
At the South Florida Water Management District, officials said they would decide today whether to lower water levels in canals or take other measures to control potential flooding.
"[Friday] afternoon, we’ll have a pretty good sign of what we expect,” said Jeff Kivet, the district’s director of Operations, Engineering and Construction, who said some rain could help drought conditions in Miami-Dade County and parts of Broward, where canals are already low.
Drought has also gripped much of the Caribbean, heightening the risk of flooding and mudslides.
In Dominica, where 20 people are missing, Erika caused rivers to overflow and roads and bridges to collapse. An elderly blind man and two children were killed when a mudslide engulfed their home in the southeast. Another man was found dead in the capital following a mudslide at his home. Police had recovered more bodies Friday, but declined to release details.
People on the island told of narrowly escaping raging floods as Erika downed trees and power lines and swept cars down streets, ripping scaffolding off some buildings.
“I was preparing to go to work when all of a sudden I heard this loud noise and saw the place flooded with water,” said Shanie James, a 30-year-old mother who works at a bakery. “We had to run for survival.”
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who was out of the country, posted photos of the storm’s damage on his Facebook page. Among the photos: a collapsed road, submerged cars and flooding at the island-nation’s Douglas-Charles Airport.
In Puerto Rico, Erika took out power to 200,000 people. This morning, forecasters said tropical storm conditions would continue to pound the island until the afternoon as conditions worsen in the Dominican Republic. Tropical storm conditions are also expected across Haiti today, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas later today and tonight.
On Friday, forecasters expanded tropical storm warnings to include Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Southeastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Central Bahamas. A watch is in effect for the Northwestern Bahamas, the Cuban Provinces of Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Holguin, and Guantanamo.
Miami Herald staff writers Christina Veiga, Jacqueline Charles and David Smiley, as well as the Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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