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Hurricane Bill Growing More Powerful

By DAVID FISCHER
,
AP
posted: 17 MINUTES AGO
comments: 548
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MIAMI (Aug. 18) – Hurricane Bill strengthened far out in the Atlantic on Tuesday and forecasters said it could become a major hurricane within a day or two.
The National Hurricane Center said people in the Leeward Islands should monitor Bill's progress.
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Hurricane Bill satellite photo on Aug. 18, 2009
NOAA / AP

Hurricane Bill is expected to become a Category 3 storm with winds topping 110 mph in the next two days.

Todd Kimberlain, a forecaster at the center, said Bill is likely to become at least a Category 3 storm, which would make it the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season.
"The wind sheer is light and the waters are warm," Kimberlain said. "Those are two essential ingredients not just for the formation, but also the maintenance, of hurricanes."
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Bill was a Category 2 hurricane with winds near 110 mph and was centered about 635 miles east of the Leeward Islands, moving west-northwest near 16 mph.
The most significant threat the storm seemed to pose was to Bermuda, which it could pass in three or four days, Kimberlain said. But it also could move directly between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the U.S. without making landfall.
Either way, people near the coast can expect wave swells and rip currents in the next few days, Kimberlain said.
Meanwhile, people in flood-prone Haiti and the Dominican Republic awoke to good news Tuesday as it appeared Ana, the first named storm of the Atlantic season, had largely spared their shared island.
The two countries that share the island of Hispaniola are vulnerable to storms, with many impoverished people clustered along rivers, but there were no reports of major damage from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ana. The system had been downgraded to a tropical depression and then largely dissipated before reaching Haiti and the Dominican Republic. but its rains were still considered a potential threat.
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"The rain fell but it did not hit anywhere very hard," said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection department.
Haiti is particularly susceptible to catastrophic flooding because most of the trees have been stripped away to make charcoal and clear farmland and the bare, mountainous terrain cannot hold back the water. A series of storms last year killed hundreds of people and left thousands struggling to find food.
Forecasters had revised their Atlantic hurricane season predictions for this season after the first two months passed without any named storms developing.
Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-08-17 09:07:16
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IwasTheWolf

06:49 PMAug 18 2009

EVILERNIE1 said from his home room====Hurricane Osama will do more damage to the Usa than any other hurricane could do=====I don't know about all of that, but Hurricane Bush was the first tropical system that sucked more than it blew.

AVG RATING:
(1)

Omeega86

06:46 PMAug 18 2009

What's one gotta do to get a Hurricane named after them?...........Is there some committee for appeals or something like that?

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(0)

Talo 821

06:44 PMAug 18 2009

PANDORME wrote "Bill won't have any Mercy if it hits land ,,I believe it will hit cat 4... maybe people will prepare ,dumb if they don't" >>>> Problem is where it just might hit... Projection looks like possibly well North of the Mason-Dixon, and no one will believe it can happen that far north until they are swimmin'..

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(2)

lorekbob2

06:37 PMAug 18 2009

Dal31550 " Sorry but camille didn't hit land and fizzle. She went up the ohio valley to w. virginia and virginia and flooded another 100 people to death before moving back out into the atlantic as a tropical depression. Azz kicked again." NICE MOVE,LOL!! The hurricane rapidly weakened as it progressed inland, and within twelve hours of moving ashore, Camille weakened to tropical storm status. Shortly thereafter it weakened to tropical depression status, by which time it began a turn to the north and northeast. On August 20, the remnants of Camille turned eastward through Kentucky, dropping heavy rainfall in West Virginia and Virginia. Later that day it emerged into the Atlantic Ocean east of Norfolk, and by August 21 it regained tropical storm status. Camille accelerated east-northeastward, attaining peak winds of 70 mph (115 km/h) as it interacted with larger Hurricane Debbie to its southeast.

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Paskulo

06:30 PMAug 18 2009

O'Bama is a racist, bigoted elitist.

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(3)

EVILERNIE1

06:30 PMAug 18 2009

Hurricane Osama will do more damage to the Usa than any other hurricane could do........

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(3)

MIKEBDB8

06:30 PMAug 18 2009

Its up to you people keep with the current health care and pay for all the unisured people...thats what your doing and it will get much more expensive upto 5 times more or have these people now uninsured pay something to keep the heath care costs level or decrease in time.

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Kat 29880

06:23 PMAug 18 2009

Alicekrm 05:07 PMAug 18 2009 Obama would love to see a huge hurricane hit the USA since he believes it will take peoples minds off of his phoney health plan. What I cannot believe is he wants licensed veterinarins to become physicians after 6 weeks of medical training................If Hurricane Bill hits are they going to lower Obama down out of a helicopter in a bullet proof vest the way the liberals expected Bush to do, just wandering????????????

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Ikereeves

06:07 PMAug 18 2009

Hairstonpamela Heart of an Angel I agree with your sentiments. I'm black, born and raised in the south and my Momma, God rest her soul, didn't spank us, she BEAT us, with an extension cord and you know what? My Momma was one of the greatest Momma's in the world. ..... my only child just finished Stanford U, class of 2009, so we turned out all right albeit the beatings. Because we can no longer "spank" our kids, many of them look, act and sound like heathens, white or black. I'm just saying, for what it's worth.------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------ You don't have to beat your child to get results. Yes, I occasionally spanked my son, but after the age of 2, he was able to understand reasoning, even if it was only, 'do that one more time and no TV'. I followed a simple rule with him: 'Lose every game and win every battle'. He developed a sense of accomplishment when we'd compete, but would never manipulate me when we'd arg...

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Dal31550

05:57 PMAug 18 2009

Sorry but camille didn't hit land and fizzle. She went up the ohio valley to w. virginia and virginia and flooded another 100 people to death before moving back out into the atlantic as a tropical depression. Azz kicked again.

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(2)

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Hurricane Bill strengthened far out in the Atlantic on Tuesday and forecasters said it could become a major hurricane within a day or two.