Storm Odette Threatens Haiti, Dominican Republic
Date: 08-Dec-03
Country: USA
Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tropical Storm Odette could reach Haiti's southern coast by Saturday.
"There's certainly an outside chance of it intensifying as it moves closer to Hispaniola," said Navy meteorologist Lt. Dave Roberts, referring to the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. He said the storm's winds had increased to around 51 mph. Odette was around 335 miles south-southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince early on Friday and moving northeast at 6 mph.
But heavy rains that could exceed 10 inches (25 cm) in mountain areas, and resulting flash floods, posed more of a threat than strong winds to Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. Haiti has been stripped of much of its forest cover, leaving it especially vulnerable to mudslides.
Odette was the first tropical storm since records began in 1871 to form in the Caribbean in December, after the end of the official June 1-Nov. 30 hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storms and hurricanes have formed before in the Atlantic in December.
Odette's surprise appearance came as a noted hurricane forecaster, Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, predicted a better-than-average chance of a major hurricane hitting the United States in the 2004 season.
Gray on Friday estimated that 13 storms will form in 2004, of which seven will grow to hurricane strength. Three of those would be major hurricanes, with winds over 110 mph, Gray forecast.
Tropical storm warnings or watches were in effect for Haiti, parts of the Dominican Republic west of the capital Santo Domingo, Jamaica, the southeastern Bahamas and the small British colony of the Turks and Caicos islands, which lie south of the Bahamas.
Odette is the 15th tropical storm or hurricane in the Atlantic-Caribbean region in 2003, making this year one of the busiest ever recorded.
Not only is the season ending out of character with a rare December storm, but it also began unusually early when Tropical Storm Ana formed in April.
Gray dismissed any link between the above-average storm activity in recent years and global warming, which some scientists blame on industrial pollution.
