A municipal worker turns on portable lights at the inner courtyard of Ramon Quinones Medina High School, one of the shelters enabled by the municipality of Yabucoa before the arrival of Tropical Storm Karen, in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico.The Associated Press
Authorities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands reported limited power outages, flooding and landslides as Tropical Storm Karen swirled away from the northeast Caribbean on Wednesday.
Schools remained closed in Puerto Rico, although government offices reopened. Meanwhile, everything reopened in the U.S. Virgin Islands except for offices and schools in St. John.
Crews also temporarily closed some coastal roads in southeastern Puerto Rico that flooded after Karen hit the island on Tuesday, leaving up to 29,000 customers without power at one point. An islandwide outage was reported in neighbouring St. Thomas Tuesday morning, followed by smaller outages later that afternoon.
Forecasters warned of more rain showers for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands throughout Wednesday, but those were expected to dissipate by Thursday as Karen heads north.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm might slow and loop back toward the west by the weekend.
Karen was located about 155 miles (249 kilometres) north northeast of San Juan early Wednesday and was moving north at 14 mph (22 kph). It had maximum sustained winds increased in the afternoon to 45 mph (75 kph), with some strengthening expected in upcoming days.
Meanwhile, Jerry became a post-tropical cyclone and was expected to pass near Bermuda on Wednesday. It was about 155 miles (245 kilometres) west of Bermuda and had sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) as it moved north-northeast at 7 mph (11 kph).
In addition, Lorenzo became the fifth Atlantic hurricane of the season and was projected to become a major hurricane by the end of the week, although it is not expected to affect the Caribbean. It was centred about 640 miles (1030 kilometres) southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph). It was heading west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).
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