Hurricane Elsa races toward Haiti amid fears of landslides
Hurricane Elsa raced toward Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday, where it threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before taking aim at Cuba and Florida. The Category 1 storm was located about 395 miles (635 kilometers) east-southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 29 mph (46 kph).
It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph), with the hurricane expected to become a tropical storm after hitting Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The long-term forecast track showed it heading toward Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning. but some models would carry it into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast.
In Haiti, authorities used social media to alert people about the hurricane and urged them to evacuate if they lived near water or mountain flanks."The whole country is threatened by this hurricane," the Civil Protection Agency said in a statement. "Make every effort to escape before it's too late."Haiti is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides because of widespread erosion and deforestation.A hurricane warning was issued for for Jamaica and from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic.
