As Tropical Storm Dorian drew closer Tuesday, Puerto Rico braced for the possibility that it would not just sideswipe the island but perhaps make landfall there. The authorities, acting under a state of emergency, closed schools early and prepared emergency shelter for tens of thousands of people.

As forecasters shifted the projected path of Dorian northward and posted tropical storm warnings for all of Puerto Rico, the island’s leaders sought to assure its 3.2 million people that they would not be caught underestimating Dorian, especially after the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

“I am confident that the people of Puerto Rico are prepared,” Gov. Wanda Vázquez said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We are going to move forward.”

Dorian is expected to strengthen over the warm waters of the Caribbean and to reach Puerto Rico on Wednesday, with its winds and rains also sweeping over the Virgin Islands and the eastern provinces of the Dominican Republic, according to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. Even if its strongest sustained winds do not reach hurricane force, Puerto Rico could be soaked with six inches of rain or more and could experience damaging flooding, especially in the island’s central mountains.

On Tuesday, the storm system was dumping heavy rain on the Windward Islands of the eastern Caribbean, with maximum sustained winds of about 80 kph. The islands include Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Overnight in Barbados, the storm knocked out power in many towns in the island’s north. But officials said public transportation would be back to normal service and businesses would reopen by the end of the day.

The storm was moving west-northwest at about 21 kph, on a path that could eventually bring high winds and rainfall to the Bahamas. And while Dorian’s trajectory is difficult to predict days in advance, forecasters say tropical storm conditions are possible in Florida, beginning Saturday.

In Puerto Rico, the authorities insisted they have enough fuel, emergency supplies and other equipment, including satellite telephones, to respond to the storm. Vázquez activated the Puerto Rico National Guard.

But people remained concerned about the possibility of widespread power disruptions, like those caused by Hurricane Maria, which struck as a Category 4 storm in 2017 and left the entire island in the dark.

“It’s scary,” Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, the capital, said in a news conference. “The reaction of people going to the stores and buying loads and loads of food and water is just a reaction to what is ingrained in your brain and in your soul about what could go wrong.”

Vázquez, who declared the state of emergency Monday night, ordered a price freeze in an effort to prevent price gouging for fuel. She said aid contracts had been signed in case the island’s public electric utility needed help to restore power after the storm.

The storm is an early challenge for Vázquez, the former justice secretary who assumed the governorship three weeks ago after a popular uprising ousted Ricardo Rosselló, the governor during the devastating 2017 hurricane season. The protests began as a demonstration against the weak economy, graft scandals and a callous response to Hurricane Maria. It ended up toppling the government in two weeks.

But money for the preparations remains an issue. The Trump administration said this month that it would delay about $9 billion (U.S.) in disaster prevention funds intended for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, citing concerns over fiscal management.

President Donald Trump repeated Tuesday, incorrectly, that Congress had approved more than $90 billion for Puerto Rico last year.

While $91 billion is the Office of Management and Budget’s estimate of how much the island could receive over the next two decades, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies had distributed $11.2 billion in aid to Puerto Rico as of April.

“The president of the United States lies again, because that is part of his racist discourse, and part of his anti-democratic discourse, and part of his anti-Latino discourse,” Cruz said.

Vázquez said that, regardless of Trump’s comment, his administration had been “extraordinary” in staying in touch and offering assistance as Dorian approached. She said her administration had asked FEMA for a federal emergency declaration, but the request had not yet been approved.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Democrats in Washington criticized the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday for transferring more than $150 million from FEMA’s disaster relief fund to pay for temporary immigration courts at the southwest border. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the timing of the transfer in the middle of hurricane season could have deadly consequences.

In the Dominican Republic, the government said it had sent alerts to six of its 32 provinces and was preparing more than 3,000 shelters that could house 800,000 people.