Tuesday August 18, 2009

Hurricane Bill gains strength on Atlantic track

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, revved up quickly as it headed towards Bermuda on Monday, while the remnants of Tropical Storm Ana posed a waning threat to the U.S. Gulf oil patch.

Hurricane Bill is pictured moving through the Atlantic Ocean, more than 1,160 miles (1,870 km) east of the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, in this satellite image taken on August 17, 2009. (REUTERS/NOAA/Handout)

Once a worrisome storm but downgraded to a tropical depression, Ana raced through the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico on a track that could take it into the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, Bill was steering well clear of the U.S. Gulf energy fields on a path that would take it north of the Caribbean islands in the general direction of Bermuda. Forecasters said it would be west of the British territory by Saturday morning.

Energy markets quaver at Gulf storms because the region produces a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of natural gas and some forecasters noted that Ana had already regenerated once.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a reconnaissance aircraft would take a look at Ana on Monday but it could be downgraded further.

"Ana could degenerate into a tropical wave later today," the hurricane center said in a statement.

Ana drenched Puerto Rico as it raced toward Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It was about 165 miles (265 km) east-southeast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic by 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and was heading west-northwest at 28 mph (45 kph), the hurricane center said.

In the mid-Atlantic, Hurricane Bill's top winds reached 90 mph (145 kph), just below Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Forecasters expected it to hit Category 3, with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph) by late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Category 3, 4 and 5 storms are considered "major" hurricanes, the most destructive type.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) Bill was about 1,080 miles (1,740 km) east of the Lesser Antilles and headed west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph), the hurricane center said.

Tropical Storm Claudette hit the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast near Fort Walton Beach in the Florida panhandle early on Monday and quickly weakened to a tropical depression as it moved over southern Alabama.

Florida emergency managers reported sporadic power outages but no widespread damage. They cautioned residents to watch for rising rivers and flooding in low-lying areas.

Claudette, which sprouted with surprising speed on Sunday in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, missed the largest concentration of U.S. oil and gas production platforms, which stretch along the coast from Mobile Bay, Alabama, to Brownsville, Texas.

NHC website: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

(Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York)

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