Tropical Storm Dorian was gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean and moving toward Barbados and the eastern Caribbean on Monday. The storm could develop into a hurricane as it closes in on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic this week, forecasters said.
The National Hurricane Center said Monday morning that Dorian, the fourth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was about 200 miles east-southeast of Barbados. It was moving west at 14 miles an hour, with maximum sustained winds measured at 60 miles an hour.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. By Wednesday, forecasters said, Dorian could sideswipe southwestern Puerto Rico as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of at least 74 miles an hour, and then make landfall in the Dominican Republic early Thursday.
In Puerto Rico, where memories of the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 remain fresh, people raced to big-box retail stores over the weekend. They lined up around the block with shopping carts and emptied some of the stores of supplies, including bottled water.
Generators were also in high demand; the island’s electrical grid remains frail. Puerto Rico’s lead emergency managers met with the new governor, Wanda Vázquez, over the weekend to review disaster plans.
At a news conference on Sunday, officials said they were far better prepared for Dorian than they were before Maria two years ago. “Puerto Rico is ready,” said Zoé Laboy, the governor’s chief of staff.
In Barbados, Prime Minister Mia Mottley closed schools and government offices across the island nation and asked its 285,000 citizens not to leave their homes. “Stay inside and get some rest,” she said late Sunday. She posted pictures on Twitter showing work crews clearing drains in preparation for the storm, which is expected to soak the island with as much as four inches of rain.
Hurricane season in the Atlantic, including the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, generally runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 each year, though storms occasionally develop out of season. September is usually the peak month for hurricanes and tropical storms.
The Trump administration said this month that it would delay about $9 billion in disaster prevention funds intended for Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, citing concerns over fiscal management.
In July, a mass uprising of Puerto Ricans fed up with the poor response to Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, and with the island’s stagnant economy forced the resignation of the governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló.
Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting from Miami.
