The long-term forecast track shows it heading toward Florida by Tuesday morning.<\/b>
\nPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti \u2014 Hurricane Elsa fell back to tropical storm force as it brushed past Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday and threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before taking aim at Cuba and Florida. The storm was centered about 255 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving west-northwest at 29 mph. It had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph as the tropical storm, which had been a Category 1 hurricane earlier on Saturday, weakened during its approach to Hispaniola and Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The long-term forecast track showed it heading toward Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning, but some models would carry it into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast. In Haiti, authorities used social media to alert people about the storm and urged them to evacuate if they lived near water or mountain flanks. \u201cThe whole country is threatened,\u201d the Civil Protection Agency said in a statement. \u201cMake every effort to escape before it\u2019s too late.\u201d Haiti is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides because of widespread erosion and deforestation. In addition, a recent spike in gang violence has forced thousands of people to flee from their homes, so the civil protection agency is running low on basic items including food and water, director Jerry Chandler told The Associated Press. \u201cIt\u2019s been three weeks that we\u2019ve been supporting families who are running away from gang violence,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are working at renewing our stocks, but the biggest problem is logistics.\u201d He said officials are still trying to figure out how to deliver supplies to Haiti\u2019s southern region, which braced for Elsa\u2019s impact. Meanwhile, people bought water and food before the storm approached. \u201cI\u2019m protecting myself the best that I can. Civil protection is not going to do that for me,\u201d said Darlene Jean-Pierre,35, as she bought six jugs of water along with vegetables and fruit. \u201cI have other worries about the street\u2026 I have to worry about gangs fighting. In addition to this, we have a hurricane. I don\u2019t know what kind of catastrophe this is going to cause.\u201d A hurricane warning remains in effect from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic. A hurricane watch was issued for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba. Some of those provinces have reported a high number of COVID-19 infections, raising concerns that the storm could force large groups of people to seek shelter together. \u201cAnticipating is the key word,\u201d said Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, adding that vaccination efforts would continue. \u201cLet\u2019s take care of lives and property.\u201d In the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, authorities opened more than 2,400 shelters as forecasters warned of heavy rains. Officials also ordered evacuations ahead of the storm as people kept stocking up on supplies. Some people worried about the state of their homes, with many living under corrugated roofing. \u201cI have a lot of leaks in my zinc,\u201d said Mar\u00eda Ramos. \u201cWhat are we going to do? Only God knows.\u201d Elsa was forecast to brush past the southernmost point of Hispaniola by Saturday afternoon and then take aim at communities in southern Haiti. The storm already had ripped off roofs, destroyed crops and downed trees and power lines in the eastern Caribbean on Friday, with damage reported in Barbados, St. Lucia and in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which also suffered massive volcanic eruptions that began in April. At least 43 homes and three police stations were damaged, said St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. \u201cWe expect that this number will increase as reports keep coming in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have some damage, but it could have been far worse.\u201d In St. Lucia, the wind damaged a secondary school, pummeling desks, overturning chairs and sending papers flying after blowing off the roof and siding. Meanwhile, authorities in Puerto Rico rescued eight people, including two children, in stormy conditions after their boat sank amid 8-10-foot waves. Elsa was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and the earliest fifth-named storm on record. It is forecast to drop 4 to 8 inches of rain with maximum totals of 15 inchesacross portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica.d to this report. Comments are not available on this story. Send questions\/comments to the editors. \u00ab Previous<\/p>\n