© NOAA
Tropical Storm Matthew (bottom right) spins in the eastern Caribbean Sea on Sept. 29, 2016.
People in the Dutch Caribbean islands reinforced their homes and stocked up on emergency supplies Thursday as
Hurricane Matthew took a rare turn through the southern Caribbean ahead of an expected shift to the north.
Matthew was passing to the north of the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao during the night, before shifting on a course predicted to take it toward Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti over the weekend.
By late Thursday, Aruba was seeing some rain and sea surge had covered part of a road on the northwest side of the island. There were no reports of evacuations. In Curacao, some streets were flooded, and there was a light rain falling on Bonaire.
The so-called "ABC islands" of the Dutch Caribbean, which were under a tropical storm watch,
are usually spared from tropical storms. Matthew's approach prompted long lines at gas stations and supermarkets. Authorities in Aruba said government offices would be closed Friday and Curacao's parliamentary elections were postponed until next week.
The government of Colombia also issued a tropical storm watch for its coast from Riohach to the Venezuelan border.
Comment: According to the
Weather Channel, Hurricane Matthew became the fifth hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season early yesterday afternoon. It is now a
Category 2 hurricane that continues to undergo rapid intensification. Matthew poses a danger to Jamaica, parts of Hispañola, eastern Cuba, and the Bahamas early next week. Its potential U.S. impact later next week still remains unclear.
Roy Spencer
comments:
Hurricane Matthew, with 105 mph sustained winds, is now over the south-central Caribbean. It is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane today or tomorrow, and possibly make landfall somewhere on the East Coast around next Thursday. If it does, Matthew's landfall would occur exactly 4,000 days after major Hurricane Wilma's landfall.
Hurricane Wilma, the last major hurricane (Cat 3 or stronger) to hit the U.S., struck Florida on October 24, 2005. Will Matthew arrive as the first major hurricane to strike the U.S. in almost 11 years? Only time will tell. (Sandy was Cat 1 at landfall, and technically not a hurricane at that time. Hurricane Ike, 2008, was a Cat 2.)
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