Hurricane Isaias dumps heavy rain on Bahamas, continues to track towards North Carolina

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Tropical Storm Isaias has officially strengthened into a Category One Hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane is still slated to track towards the U.S. East Coast along North Carolina.

On Friday morning, the storm was spinning around Turks & Caicos and dumping heavy rain on the Bahamas. The National Hurricane Center said flash-flooding and mudslides are possible across the Dominican Republic, northern Haiti, Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas.

The hurricane is currently moving northwest at 17 mph with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and gusts up to 100 mph. The storm is expected to brush the coast of Florida and Georgia this weekend. Isaias could brush the Carolina coast on Monday and Tuesday.

At 5 a.m., the hurricane was 15miles south-southwest of Great Inagua Island. On Thursday, more than 400,000 customers in Puerto Rico lost power, according to ABC News. Some were trapped in flooding.

While that path is still a long way out and could change drastically, at this time it does look like Isaias will at least bring rain to parts of North Carolina next week.
However, the coast is already seeing effects of Isaias as a high risk rip current goes into effect starting Friday stretching from Hatteras down to the Carolina Beach. The elevated threat will go on into the weekend as the storm continues to move north.

At midnight, the National Hurricane Center issued Hurricane Warnings for Central and Southeastern Bahamas.

Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said Isaias is the earliest ninth Atlantic named storm. The previous record was Irene on August 7, 2005.

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The center of Isaias is expected to move over Hispaniola late Thursday. When tropical systems move over the mountainous Hispaniola region they are often difficult to predict. The storms path and strength will likely change over the next few days.
The storm’s cone of uncertainty does include North Carolina. Current projections say the storm will reach our shores Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Stay with the ABC11 First Alert Weather team as they monitor this hurricane and any threats it may bring to North Carolina.

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