Hurricane Lee has dangerously intensified into a category 5 storm, as it approaches the northeast Caribbean islands. The hurricane has been on the news on different weather channels for a while now.
The first Category 5 hurricane of the Atlantic season was located early Friday about 550 miles from the Lesser Antilles, with ferocious winds of up to 165 mph.
“Lee continues to strengthen at an exceptional rate,” the National Hurricane Center warned.
The storm is expected to affect the group of Caribbean islands later Friday and reach the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas, and Bermuda over the weekend.
“We will see waves between 10 and 15 feet, so we don’t want anyone on the beaches,” said Ernesto Morales, with the National Weather Service in San Juan.
Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and peaks in September.
President Biden was on Thursday given the hurricane’s latest trajectory and details of preparations underway by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, which deployed unidentified assets to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to the White House.
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration in August forecasted between 14 to 21 named storms this season, with six to 11 of them expected to become hurricanes.
