SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — New Hurricane Isaias kept on a path early Friday expected to take it to the U.S. East Coast by the weekend as it approached the Bahamas, parts of which are still recovering from the devastation of last year's Hurricane Dorian.
At this time, the storm doesn't appear to be making landfall in Florida, but officials agree Isaias will have an impact. It has maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, and is expected to be near South Florida on Saturday. Heavy rain may occur over South Florida by tonight, potentially causing flash and urban flooding. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the east coast of Florida from Ocean Reef to Sebastian Inlet.
The storm is expected to spread northward along the east coast through early next week. The forecast track is still a bit uncertain, but those along the east coast should be aware and monitor the progress of Isaias.
President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico as a result of the storm passing over the island on Thursday.
The storm knocked out power to more than 400,000 clients across Puerto Rico, including hospitals that switched to generators, and left some 150,000 customers without water. Crews opened the gates of one dam that last month had such a low water level that officials cut service every other day for some 140,000 customers. Outages also were reported in the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands.
Isaias is the earliest ninth Atlantic named storm to form, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. The previous record was Irene on August 7, 2005.
So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard, Fay, Gert and Hanna have also been the earliest named Atlantic storms for their alphabetic order.
