Dorian could be a hurricane when it approaches Puerto Rico

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for several Caribbean islands Monday as Tropical Storm Dorian headed toward the region on a path that could send it skirting near Puerto Rico as a hurricane by midweek.

Dorian, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed as a tropical depression on Saturday and quickly gathered strength.

It was 205 miles east-southeast of Barbados on Monday morning, moving west at 14 mph with maximum winds of 60 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in its 8 a.m. ET advisory.

Forecasters said the compact storm was “getting better organized” and was expected to make a turn west-northwest later Monday, sending the center of Dorian near the Windward Islands late Monday and into the eastern Caribbean Sea later Tuesday.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while tropical storm watches were issued for Martinique, Grenada and Dominica.

Forecasters stressed that the storm’s path could shift markedly before it reached populated areas, but the projections Monday morning suggested Dorian would be either a strong tropical storm or a Category 1 hurricane as it approached Puerto Rico.

“It is going to move through areas like Barbados and St. Lucia and then eventually pass just to the south of Puerto Rico,” NBC News meteorologist Dylan Dreyer said on “Today” on Monday morning. From there, she said, Dorian would move over the Dominican Republic, weaken a little, and then most likely strengthen again as it moved through the Bahamas.

By the weekend, southeastern Florida could feel some of the effects of the lingering tropical system.

An updated forecast projection for Tropical Storm Dorian suggests it could be a Category 1 hurricane when it approaches Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening.National Hurricane Center

Dorian was expected to bring heavy rains of up to 6 inches in some areas — something that could be devastating for Puerto Rico. The island remains in crisis almost two years after Hurricane Maria, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, killed almost 3,000 people in September 2017.

Puerto Rico’s power grid, which was destroyed, remains severely compromised, and with its electric utility more than $9 billion in debt, the island’s new governor earlier this month suspended a $450,000 contract that was to have been part of the rebuilding program.

As recently as June, Peter Gaynor, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testified that FEMA remained significantly understaffed, telling the House Homeland Security Committee, “We’re probably short a few thousand employees.”

Dorian’s arrival also comes as Puerto Rico is suffering from what is perhaps the worst political crisis in its history. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned late last month amid historic demonstrations after hundreds of offensive chats between him and his top advisers were published, some of which made light of the deaths from Maria.