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News from the Caribbean as of
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Hurricane Gordon intensifies, Helene next in line
Thursday, September 14, 2006
by Margot Habiby and Courtney Dentch
USA (Bloomberg), MIAMI: Hurricane Gordon strengthened over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday and was just shy of becoming the season's first major hurricane, though unlikely to threaten land, as Tropical Depression 8 was expected to become Tropical Storm Helene.
Gordon, the third hurricane since the Atlantic season started June 1, was 570 miles southeast of Bermuda at 5 pm EDT, the US National Hurricane Center said. Sustained winds are 110 miles per hour, making Gordon a strong Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
"Additional strengthening is forecast, and Gordon is expected to become a Category 3 hurricane during the next 24 hours," the Miami-based center said in an online advisory.
Gordon is just 1 mph below the threshold for a Category 3 storm, which would also classify it as a major hurricane.
Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extend 30 miles from the center of Gordon, and tropical storm-force winds of 39 mph to 73 mph reach as far as 105 miles, the center said. Gordon was moving north at about 12 mph. The hurricane is forecast to turn northeast over the next three days and remain over the central Atlantic.
The hurricanes this week came in the middle of what has been a quieter-than-expected Atlantic hurricane season. The 2006 season was originally forecast to be more active than average in the wake of a record season last year, when 28 named storms formed, 15 of them hurricanes.
By this time last year, 15 named storms had developed in the Atlantic, eight of them hurricanes and four of them major. The worst of those, Katrina, caused about $81 billion in damage, devastated New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people and cut oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
A tropical depression off the west coast of Africa will become Tropical Storm Helene Wednesday night or Thursday if its winds intensify to 39 mph from current speeds of 35 mph, the US hurricane center said. If Helene forms, it will be the season's eighth named storm.
The storm, currently designated Tropical Depression 8, was about 445 miles southwest of the southernmost of the Cape Verde Islands as of 5 pm EDT, moving west at about 18 mph.
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