Marco becomes hurricane as Tropical Storm Laura pummels the Caribbean

MIAMI — Marco is now at hurricane strength with 75 mph maximum sustained winds. It is the third hurricane in an already active storm season, weather officials said.

Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura are advancing across the Caribbean, posing potentially historic threats to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Tropical Storm Laura continues to pummel the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti with torrential rainfall and life-threatening flash floods, weather officials said.

Laura has 50 mph maximum sustained winds and is heading west northwest at 21 mph.

The latest projection from the U.S. National Hurricane Center points to Tropical Storm Laura and Hurricane Marco both approaching Louisiana at or close to hurricane force just two days apart next week.

Hurricane researchers said two hurricanes have never appeared in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time, according to records going back to at least 1900.

Hurricane Marco formed Friday night over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and it’s the 13th-named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

Marco was about 300 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River and heading north-northwest at 14 mph, packing winds of 75 mph. The National Hurricane Center warned of life-threatening storm surges and hurricane-force winds along the Gulf Coast.

Haitian civil protection officials said they received reports that a 10-year-old girl died when a tree fell on a home in the southern coastal town of Anse-a-Pitres, on the border on the Dominican Republic. It was the first reported death from the storm. Hundreds of thousands were without power in the Dominican Republic, as both countries on the island of Hispaniola suffered heavy flooding.

A hurricane watch was issued for the New Orleans metro area, which Hurricane Katrina pummeled in August 2005.

Tropical Storm Laura also formed Friday in the eastern Caribbean and forecasters said it poses a potential hurricane threat to Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Laura was centered about 95 miles off the eastern tip of Cuba Sunday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. It was moving west-northwest at 21 mph.

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It was forecast to move over Cuba on Sunday night or Monday.

Officials in the Florida Keys, which Laura might pass over on its route into the Gulf, declared a local state of emergency and issued a mandatory evacuation order for anyone living on boats, in mobile homes and in campers. Tourists staying in hotels were warned to be aware of hazardous weather conditions and consider changing their plans starting Sunday.

New warnings were added Sunday morning — including a storm surge warning from Morgan City, Louisiana to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and a hurricane warning from Morgan City to the mouth of the Pearl River. A tropical storm warning included Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, and metropolitan New Orleans.

A storm surge of up to 6 feet was forecast for parts of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.

Tropical storm watches are posted for several islands at the eastern end of the Caribbean while a tropical storm warning is posted at the Honduras-Nicaragua border region at the western side of the sea.

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If forecasts hold, we could see something that has never happened before: two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time. The closest thing last seen to this were two tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico in 1959, one named Beulah and the other an unnamed storm.

The hurricane center said the storms were not expected to interact as the region faces an unusually active hurricane season.

Both storms were expected to bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to areas they were passing over or near, threatening flooding.

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Currently, neither system is expected to impact the Carolinas.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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