Current *** WORLD *** Breaking News

[jgbuz]

Potential storm Florence brewing in Atlantic
POSTED: 12:00 p.m. EDT, September 4, 2006





MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A tropical depression brewing over the open Atlantic was nearing tropical storm strength Monday morning, forecasters said.

At 11 a.m. ET, the depression had sustained winds near 35 mph, 4 mph shy of becoming a tropical storm and the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Forecasters said it could become a tropical storm later Monday or Tuesday. If it makes it, it will become Tropical Storm Florence.

It was centered about 1,235 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and moving northwest at near 12 mph, a path forecasters said they expected to continue for the next day, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was briefly the season's first Atlantic hurricane.

Ernesto hit the U.S. mainland at tropical storm strength, first moving over Florida, then swinging out to sea before hitting the Carolinas just short of hurricane strength.

The storm and its remnants tore down tree limbs and power lines and flooded low-lying areas and roads along the East Coast.

It was blamed for at least eight deaths, most of them in Virginia.

A woman died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a portable generator, bringing Virginia's death toll from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto to six, officials said.

The woman hooked up the generator in her Newport News garage after losing electrical power during the storm, state Department of Emergency Management spokesman Marc LaFountain said. He said an open garage window did not provide adequate ventilation.

"This, sadly, is something we often see after tropical storms," LaFountain said. "These generators generate enormous amounts of carbon monoxide, and it's important they be run outside."

Three people died in unrelated car crashes attributed to the storm, and a Gloucester couple were killed after a massive tree crushed their modular home.

Another death was reported in North Carolina, and in Pennsylvania, a man drowned in a rain-swollen retention basin while trying to rescue his dog.

Nearly 99,000 customers remained without power Sunday in Virginia, New York and New Jersey. (Watch damage done by Ernesto -- 1:14)

In North Carolina, volunteer evacuations continued Sunday along the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin County, some two days after Ernesto dumped 8 to 12 inches of rain on eastern parts of the state.

In the West, the remnants of Hurricane John drenched the Baja California peninsula Monday and threatened heavy rains and flooding in parts of the U.S. Southwest. (Full story)

Last year's Atlantic storm season set a record with 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes, including Katrina, which devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

So far, the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season hasn't been as rough as many forecasters initially feared. Forecaster William Gray downgraded his expectations for the season on Friday to five hurricanes, a slightly below-average season. The National Hurricane Center lowered its Atlantic storms forecast in August to between seven and nine hurricanes.