Florida Is Under Hurricane Watch as Storm Brews in the Caribbean

(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane watches have been issued along Florida’s western coastline, including Tampa Bay, as forecasters monitor a Caribbean storm that’s expected to gather steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 

The system, likely to be named Helene later Tuesday, could tear across Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region this week before plunging into southern Georgia, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research. Losses and damages may total between $6 billion to $8 billion. Parts of Cuba and Mexico are also under hurricane watch. 

As of 8 a.m. local time, the storm was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) south-southeast of Cuba’s western tip with winds of 35 miles per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center. The potential hurricane, which is expected to approach Florida on Thursday, has already triggered the evacuation of some Gulf oil and natural gas platforms.

In anticipation of the storm, Florida has temporarily closed some disaster recovery centers set up in the wake of Hurricane Debby, which struck the Big Bend region in August.

Meanwhile, torrential rain is falling across southwestern Mexico, where Hurricane John came ashore in the state of Guerrero late Monday as a Category 3 storm. While the storm has lost wind power since, it is still a major flood threat and Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda ordered shelters opened for residents. 

John, with top winds of 50 miles per hour, was about 60 miles north-northwest of Acapulco, the hurricane center said in an 8 a.m. New York time advisory.

“That storm is going to meander around coastal Mexico for the next several days, bringing very significant rainfall to the mountainous regions,” said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with commercial-forecast AccuWeather Inc. “That is really our main concern going forward. This is a very life-threatening situation.”

Parts of Chiapas may get as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain, while the neighboring states of Oaxaca and Guerrero may see up to 20 inches with isolated spots getting as much as 30 inches, the US hurricane center said. Acapulco, still recovering from a direct hit by Hurricane Otis in October, will get drenched again, Watson said.

John made landfall on the Pacific coast, and the brewing Caribbean system threatens to unleash flooding in the Yucatan just days before President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum is set to take office on Oct. 1. That’s raising the stakes for the incoming administration to manage the crisis in her first days in office.

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