Hurricane Gustav: Hey Fort Lauderdale, We Go Again!

~~Tropical Storm~~ Hurricane Gustav, the seventh named storm of the 2008 hurricane season, emerged in the Caribbean south of Haiti on Monday afternoon, and it was rapidly gaining strength.At 2 p.m., today, the system was 225 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, moving northwest at 14 mph with sustained winds of 60 mph. Its tropical force winds extended 50 miles from its center.

Tropical Storm Gustav

Only two hours earlier, the system was deemed to be a 35-mph tropical depression. Forecasters warned the system could produce up to 7 inches of rain over Hispaniola with isolated pockets possibly seeing as much as 25 inches of rain.

Forecasters say the center of the storm would be moving near or over southwestern Haiti on Tuesday. The storm is moving toward the northwest at about 14 mph.

Hurricane warnings have been issued for the southern and western parts of the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A hurricane watch has been issued for Haiti from north of Port-au-Prince to the northern border of the Dominican Republic.

”It is very well defined, very tight,” National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said.

Computer forecast models are inconclusive as to where the storm may head, but the official hurricane center track shows it passing through Haiti on Tuesday and toward eastern Cuba on Wednesday. If it were to continue on its northwest path, Tropical Storm Gustav could affect South Florida by this weekend.

The storm is located just south of where Tropical Storm Fay formed on Aug. 15. It’s bigger than Fay was at that point in its development, but Read said atmospheric conditions are ”not quite as pristine” for Gustav’s growth as they were for Fay.

”There are a lot of possibilities in what could happen,” Read said.

Stay Tuned Here on the F ort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog for Tropical Storm updates affecting South Florida.