Authorities in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands reported limited power outages, flooding and landslides as Tropical Storm Karen swirled away from the north-east Caribbean early on Wednesday.
Some schools and government offices were expected to reopen in the region with the exception of those in St John in the US Virgin Islands.
Ernesto Morales, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s San Juan office, said heavy rains would keep affecting Puerto Rico’s southern and eastern region until shortly before dawn on Wednesday.
“It’s not the moment to lower your guard,” he warned.
Crews also temporarily closed some coastal roads in south-eastern Puerto Rico that became flooded after Karen hit the island on Tuesday, leaving up to 29,000 customers without power at one point.
An island-wide outage was reported in neighbouring St Thomas on Tuesday morning, followed by smaller outages later that afternoon.
Forecasters warned of more rain showers for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands throughout Wednesday, but those were expected to dissipate by Thursday as Karen headed north.
Here is the Key Message for the 5 pm AST 9/24 advisory on Tropical Storm #Karen. The full advisory is at: https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB pic.twitter.com/ut01DoUcT7
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 24, 2019
The US National Hurricane Centre said it was expected to stay well east of the Bahamas, which was hit by Hurricane Dorian on September 1.
Karen was located about 155 miles north-north-east of San Juan early on Wednesday and was moving north at 14mph.
It had maximum sustained winds increased in the afternoon to 45mph, with some strengthening expected in upcoming days.
Karen will continue to move farther away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through Thursday.
Meanwhile, Jerry, has become a post-tropical cyclone and was expected to pass near Bermuda on Wednesday morning.
It was about 185 miles west of Bermuda and had sustained winds of 45mph as it moved north-north-east at 7mph.
Post-Tropical Cyclone #Jerry Advisory 32: Jerry Becomes Post-Tropical. https://t.co/VqHn0u1vgc
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 25, 2019
In addition, Lorenzo has become the fifth Atlantic hurricane of the season and was projected to become a major hurricane by the end of the week, although it is not expected to affect the Caribbean.
It was centred about 640 miles south-west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and had maximum sustained winds of 80mph.
It was heading west-north-west at 17mph.
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