SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico activated the National Guard on Monday and canceled the start of classes in public schools as forecasters warned the U.S. territory would be hit by what is expected to soon be a tropical storm.
The National Hurricane Center said a disturbance in the Atlantic is expected to become a tropical depression later Monday and then strengthen into a tropical storm as it nears the northeast Caribbean.
Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Barts and St. Maarten.
Officials in the French Caribbean said the disturbance is expected to drench Guadeloupe on Monday and pass near St. Barts and St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center said the disturbance is forecast to approach Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Tuesday evening.
Forecasters warned the system is expected to unleash floods and landslides.
“We cannot let our guard down,” Nino Correa, Puerto Rico’s emergency management commissioner, said at a news conference.
Ernesto Morales, with the National Weather Service in San Juan, said between six to eight inches of rain are expected, with higher amounts in isolated areas. He also warned of hurricane-strength wind gusts as the storm is expected to hit northeast Puerto Rico and move across the U.S. territory late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
He urged people to prepare and stay alert given ongoing uncertainties over the approaching system.
“This trajectory is not written in stone and will be changing,” he said.
In the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. urged people to take the storm seriously.
“This is a practice run to make sure we’re really prepared,” he said, noting that the peak of hurricane season is yet to come.
The disturbance is slated to become Ernesto, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
It is expected to become a hurricane early Thursday as it turns north toward Bermuda, with some forecasters warning it could strengthen into a major Category 3 storm.
The disturbance is located about 435 miles (700 kilometers) east-southeast of Antigua. It has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and is moving west at 26 mph (43 kph).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures. It forecasted 17 to 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.