Marco loses its punch
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from November 1996.
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At 10:00 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Marco was about 180 miles (295 km) south of Kingston, at latitude 15.3 north and longitude 76.6 west, and moving very little, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miami.
"There doesn't seem to be anything that's really going to make it move strongly in any one direction," hurricane centre meteorologist Mike Hopkins said. "It may just sit and wobble around out there for awhile. We don't think much is going to change right now."
Marco reached hurricane strength with winds of 75 mph (120 kph) for part of the day on Wednesday but had weakened to a tropical storm by Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning its maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph (75 kph) and forecasters said they did not expect it to weaken much more nor to regain hurricane strength within the next 24 hours.
A tropical storm warning for Jamaica—an indication that forecasters believed storm conditions would affect the island within 24 hours—was changed to a less-urgent tropical storm watch, and watches for Cuba and Haiti were discontinued.
But forecasters and emergency workers warned the region's residents to be ready for torrential rains, with 15 inches (37.5 cm) or more expected in some areas as Marco passed. The storm's fringes were dumping rain on parts of Haiti on Thursday, forecasters said. Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management and other emergency agencies remained on high alert. And many schools and other educational institutions, including the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, remained closed.
Jamaican government officials said they were particularly concerned about rains from Marco because the island has been soaked by downpours in recent weeks. Those rains had caused 3 million in damages to roads and drainage systems and left some 170 families without shelter because of flooding.
The hurricane centre also said heavy rains not directly related to Marco were expected to continue over parts of Central America during the next day or two. Rainfall in that region has left thousands homeless in Honduras and been blamed for at least one death in Honduras and two in Nicaragua.
