The Nation - News from Sept. 5, 1989

Hurricane Gabrielle pushed a huge, 400-mile-wide band of storm-strength wind across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean. However, it will be four to five days before forecasters can say if it will strike the U.S. mainland, said Bob Sheets, director of the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fla. It was on a path that could take it northwest of the Virgin Islands. The Atlantic season’s fourth hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 130 m.p.h., and meteorologists at the hurricane center said the storm would probably strengthen as it moved over warm tropical water.