Storm Slams Grand Turk Island, Takes Aim at U.S.

Hurricane Hortense smashed the island of Grand Turk with torrents of rain and 90-mph winds Wednesday as it picked up speed and headed toward the United States, leaving at least 14 dead in its wake.

It was the third direct strike in two days for Hortense, which pounded Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

Search helicopters found four more bodies Wednesday in Puerto Rico, where afternoon thunderstorms threatened more of the flash floods and mudslides responsible for most of the 12 deaths in this U.S. commonwealth.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic found two bodies Wednesday. Many others on the islands were missing and presumed drowned.

The hurricane hit Grand Turk at 2 p.m., lashing the capital of the British island chain with gusts up to 90 mph while churning the Atlantic Ocean with 105-mph winds. Because telephone lines were down on the island, it was impossible to determine whether anyone was killed or injured.

Rains and winds preceding the hurricane also knocked out power to the island of 3,200, leaving residents without state television or radio.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said there was a slight chance the hurricane would cross the Bahamas and come within 65 miles of West Palm Beach on Florida’s east coast Friday.

But forecasters think it’s more likely a weather trough in the mid-Atlantic states will keep the hurricane offshore, pushing the storm north and possibly targeting the Northeast and New England by Sunday.

Hortense’s sheets of blinding rain did the most damage in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, when highways that had been transformed into rivers swept away cars and rivers burst their banks, carrying away people and destroying more than 650 homes.

Power and water supplies were cut across most of this island of 3.6 million people. A third of the affected residents had their power back by Wednesday morning.

Many San Juan houses still were knee-deep in water. Highways were strewn with abandoned cars, while water and downed trees made many roads impassable.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, relentless rain had the victims of Hurricane Fran wondering if their nightmare would ever end.

In Goldsboro, the Neuse River, which runs for 180 miles from the central part of the state on its way to the southern coast, was expected to rise 13 feet above its banks by today, just shy of a 1929 record.

More than 1,000 people were told to leave their homes. Roads across the state were closed because of the high waters; creeks and rivers surged over their banks all over eastern counties.