The deaths were reported in the Dominican Republic and St. Lucia as the storm, previously the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, slammed the western Caribbean on Sunday.<\/b>
\nTropical Storm Elsa, which battered islands in the eastern Caribbean as the first hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic season, was blamed for the deaths of at least three people in St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic as it barreled toward Cuba on Sunday afternoon. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency reported one death on Saturday in Soufri\u00e8re, St. Lucia. And in the Dominican Republic, a 15-year-old and a 75-year-old woman died in separate incidents on Saturday when walls collapsed on them in heavy rain, the country\u2019s Emergency Operations Center said in a statement. As of 2 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, the center of the fast-moving storm, which had sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, was approaching eastern Cuba, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving northwest at 14 m.p.h. \u201cWhile it\u2019s slowing down, it\u2019s going to be moving over the southwest peninsula of Haiti, then near Jamaica, and then it\u2019s going to go over western and central Cuba,\u201d said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was expected to weaken over Cuba on Monday, the center said. A hurricane watch, in which hurricane conditions are possible but are not expected, was in effect for various Cuban provinces. The storm moved across the eastern Caribbean Sea on Friday evening and to an area near Hispaniola late Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, the storm was moving toward the eastern provinces of Cuba, and was expected to move toward the island\u2019s central and western provinces on Monday. Elsa was expected to approach the western coast of Florida on Tuesday. The storm was expected to strengthen again after passing through the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, the center said. A tropical storm warning was in effect on Sunday for Jamaica, several Cuban provinces and the western Florida Keys. A tropical storm watch, in which hurricane conditions are possible but not expected, was in effect for Florida Bay, the eastern Florida Keys, a province in western Cuba and the Cayman Islands. Rainfall of up to 15 inches, which could lead to isolated flash flooding and mudslides, was forecast for parts of the Caribbean. Elsa could also affect other parts of Florida next week, the center said. The storm was being watched closely in South Florida, where it could potentially complicate rescue work at the site of the collapsed condominium building in Surfside, Fla., near Miami. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County said at a news conference on Sunday that crews were anticipating possible effects from the storm that could temporarily force them to stop working for their own safety. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida said officials were continuing to monitor the storm\u2019s anticipated path. \u201cObviously, these tracks can change,\u201d he said. However, on Thursday, Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said, \u201cI want to assure you: The state will continue to support their local partners in the Surfside response.\u201d Mr. Guthrie said some of his top deputies would remain at the condo site even if he had to travel elsewhere in the state to respond to Elsa. He added: \u201cWe are accustomed to running three or more disasters at the same time.\u201d Mr. Feltgen, the Hurricane Center spokesman, said there was \u201ca lot of concern\u201d because the cone of the hurricane\u2019s projected course included the entire Florida peninsula. \u201cImpacts are going to be inside and outside that cone,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a lot of uncertainty.\u201d He added that people in Florida should \u201cmonitor the latest updates and check your hurricane supplies.\u201d Elsa, the fifth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, formed as a tropical storm on Thursday. It was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Friday, then downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday. Ana became the first named storm of the season, on May 23, making this year the seventh in a row that a named storm developed in the Atlantic before the official start of the season on June 1. The links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming more apparent. A warming planet can expect to experience stronger hurricanes over time, and a higher incidence of the most powerful storms \u2014 though the overall number of storms may drop, because factors like stronger wind shear might keep weaker storms from forming. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast that there would be 13 to 20 named storms this year, six to 10 of which would be hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher in the Atlantic. Last year, there were 30 named storms, including six major hurricanes, causing meteorologists to exhaust the alphabet for the second time and move to using Greek letters. It was the highest number of storms on record, surpassing the 28 storms in 2005, and included the second-highest number of hurricanes on record.<\/p>\n