NASA/NOAA GOES Project via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Less than a week after being walloped by Hurricane Irma, tiny Caribbean islands are bracing for a new threat: Hurricane Jose.
Jose, which was upgraded to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane Friday with 150 mph winds, is following Irma’s path and is forecast to come close to the already decimated Leeward Islands, including St. Martin and Barbuda. Jose is not currently a threat to the U.S.
The damage on St. Martin is so bad that some large resort companies, including Sonesta, have canceled reservations for the rest of 2017. And with a second hurricane nearing, it will be several more days before the island receives any aid.
On Thursday, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne urged residents of Barbuda, where an estimated 95 percent of structures and vehicles were destroyed by Irma, to evacuate to nearby Antigua as Jose approached. By Friday, the government said it had brought all 1,800 or so of its residents to its sister island to weather the impending storm.
Browne described the damage to Barbuda from Irma as “horrible,” saying the storm ripped into the island with the force of a “bomb” going off.
Meanwhile, Irma is advancing on the U.S. mainland and is now forecast to hit the Florida Keys as a Category 5 storm. Meteorologists expect Irma to make landfall in the Keys between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET on Sunday. Overnight projections of Irma’s path showed less of a threat to the Carolinas as the monster storm appeared likely to move directly up the middle of Florida and curve inland.
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