Forecasters issued hurricane watches for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Ernesto began dumping heavy rain on Puerto Rico and churning up the surrounding Atlantic Ocean.
"Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 60 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts," the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. ET update. "Additional strengthening is forecast, and Ernesto is expected to become a hurricane by early Wednesday."
Ernesto was about 135 miles east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and moving west-northwest at 18 mph, the center said.
It was expected to turn to the northwest and cross over or near the Virgin Islands on Tuesday evening, then pass just northeast and north of Puerto Rico late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
The Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra, east of the main island, were also under hurricane watch.
Officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands announced early that all schools would be closed and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. warned residents, "Don't sleep on this," the Associated Press reported.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi urged people to be indoors by early Tuesday evening and officials opened shelters and moved dozens of endangered parrots into hurricane-proof rooms, AP said.
"We are going to have a lot of rain," Pierluisi said.
Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, which operates Puerto Rico's electric grid, urged residents to report any blackouts, saying the system wasn't "sufficiently modernized to detect power outages."
The grid was razed in September 2017 by the Category 4 storm Hurricane Maria and has yet to be fully repaired.
Officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands were also worried about outages, with blackouts reported Monday on St. Thomas and St. John, AP said.
The National Hurricane center publicly warned officials in Bermuda to monitor Ernesto's progress and said swells from the storm were expected to reach the U.S. east coast Thursday night and continue into the weekend.
