MANATEE — After a quiet start, this year’s hurricane season lit up with three storms developing over the weekend.
The biggest, Bill, increased to a Category 2 storm late Monday with sustained winds whipping at 100 mph as it continued on a mid-Atlantic projected path toward Bermuda.
Locally, emergency management officials monitored forecast reports and participated in conference calls with state officials in order to be prepared for anything, Laurie Feagans, chief of Manatee County Emergency Management, said Monday.
She urged local residents to prepare disaster plans and kits since tropical storms can be unpredictable. She noted Hurricane Fay last year brought unexpectedly heavy rain and flooding to many parts of the state.
Local Red Cross officials also participated in briefings with counterparts across the state Monday.
“We talk to other Red Crosses in the state so everybody’s prepared, regardless of where the storm actually hits,” explained Tracy Vanderneck, financial development director for the American Red Cross Manatee County Chapter.
The disaster relief organization inventoried its 200 active volunteers to ensure they are available for duty should the need arise, Vanderneck said.
The Red Cross operates 25 shelters in Manatee and five more main shelters in Hardee County, she said.
As Bill, the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season, was gaining strength, the remnants of Tropical Storm Claudette dumped rain on the southern United States and Ana floundered in the Caribbean.
At 11 p.m. Monday, Bill’s center was about 865 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and headed west-northwest at 17 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were 100 mph, according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Some strengthening was forecast over the next two days, and Bill could become a major hurricane — sustained winds of at least 111 mph — by Wednesday, the advisory said.
Bill’s hurricane-force winds extended 30 miles from its center, with tropical storm force winds extending 200 miles.
It was too soon to tell if Bill would threaten the U.S. East Coast, said John Cangialosi, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. However, the storm’s five-day projected path as of 5 p.m. Monday was nowhere near the Florida coast.
Poorly organized Tropical Depression Ana degenerated into a trough of low pressure Monday. However, its remnants could still produce heavy rainfall for Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and poverty-stricken Haiti, which was devastated by multiple storms last year.
Claudette made landfall at Fort Walton Beach and dissolved into a depression as it crossed into Alabama. It dropped as much as 4 inches of rain on Crestview, Apalachicola and other Panhandle towns.
Officials warned tourists and boaters to remain aware of each storm’s location, track and intensity through this weekend, since winds would heighten seas and waves, especially along the Atlantic coast. Swimmers should expect stronger and more frequent rip currents, officials warned.
Meanwhile, a new tropical wave pushed off the coast of Africa on Monday, emerging from the same area where Ana and Bill originated.
The Associated Press and the Miami Herald contributed to this report.
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