Earl upgraded to Category 4 hurricane

AFP - Hurricane Earl was upgraded to a category four storm Monday as it brushed past Puerto Rico and headed for the eastern US coast, amid warnings it may cause catastrophic damage.
   
Packing fierce winds of up to 135 miles (215 kilometers) an hour, Earl was raised to a category four as it churned across the Caribbean, with experts forecasting it may skim the eastern United States coast later in the week.
   
On the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale used by the US National Hurricane Center, a category four storm carries a warning that "catastrophic damage will occur" with a high risk of structural damage.
   
"There is a very high risk of injury or death to people, livestock, and pets due to flying and falling debris," the center says on its website of a category four storm.
   
Earl was churning west-northwest at 14 miles (22 kilometers) per hour, dumping heavy rains and whipping up massive waves as it continued its arc past the Lesser Antilles.
   
Even though it may strengthen in the next day or so, the storm was not projected to make landfall immediately, and earlier hurricane warnings for Puerto Rico and the US and British Virgin Islands were downgraded.
   
One weather model has Hurricane Earl skimming the Outer Banks, in North Carolina on Friday, and possibly reaching as far north as the Canadian province of New Brunswick by Saturday.
   
Midway through the annual Atlantic hurricane season, the eye of the storm passed over the French islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy early Monday, bringing down trees, blocking roads and snapping power lines.
   
The French supplier EDF estimated some 3,500 people were left without power in the two islands, and were planning to send in reinforcements from Martinique to repair downed lines. In Guadeloupe another 4,000 people had no electricity.
   
French Overseas Territories Minister Marie-Luce Penchard told AFP late Monday that it appeared there had been no loss of life.
   
But "the wind is so strong that people still can't go out," she said. She was planning to travel to the two islands on Tuesday to assess the damage, but said a desalination plant had been hit and water supplies had been disrupted.
   
The strong winds could further trigger "large and dangerous battering waves" of over three to five feet (a meter to a meter and a half) in Puerto Rico, while the storm could dump up to "12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in high areas," the US hurricane center warned earlier.
   
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the hurricane center warned.
   
Winds of up to 170 kilometers (105 miles) an hour were registered in Saint Barthelemy, emergency officials in Guadeloupe said.
   
The northern half of Saint Martin is French territory, with the remainder -- known as Saint Maarten -- belonging to the Netherlands. Saint Barthelemy lies to the southeast.
   
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed "the discipline and courage" of the islands' residents, saying they were being sorely tested by the hurricane.
   
Meanwhile, the nearby twin-island state Antigua and Barbuda lifted its tropical storm warning Monday.
   
Danielle, which never made landfall, continued to weaken from its category one hurricane status as it sailed towards the open northern Atlantic and was downgraded on Monday to a tropical storm.
   
The hurricane center also upgraded a third weather system forming about 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) to the east of the lesser Antilles, naming it Tropical Storm Fiona.