The hurricane’s maximum sustained winds Monday morning are near 85 miles per hour (140 kph) with gradual weakening expected during the next two days.
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Hurricane Joaquin is moving northeastward over the open north Atlantic Ocean.
Residents of the mid-Atlantic British dependency mostly hunkered down at home after securing patio furniture and stocking up on gas and batteries as the hurricane whipped the mid-Atlantic British territory.
“I can think of worse places to be”, said Derrick Tucker in the crowded Robin Hood Pub and Restaurant as the wind whistled outside.
The position and forecast track for Hurricane Joaquin, as of the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. advisory.
The powerful rainstorm dumped more than a foot (30 cms) of rain overnight on Columbia, swamping hundreds of businesses and homes. Emergency workers waded into waist-deep water to help people trapped in cars, dozens of boats fanned out to rescue others in flooded neighborhoods and a few were plucked from rooftops by helicopters.
The county could be hit by the remnants of Hurricane Joaquin at the weekend, as wet and windy weather returns and temperatures plunge. The cargo ship El Faro left Jacksonville, Florida for Puerto Rico on Tuesday with 33 people aboard, a lot of them Americans, when Joaquin was still a tropical storm. The U.S. Coast Guard said the craft sunk after losing power and communications when it was caught in the strengthening hurricane.
The forecaster said the tail-end of the hurricane, which has already caused havoc in the United States, Barbados, Bahamas and Bermuda, could arrive at the weekend.
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According to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, at 5pm on Thursday (October 1), the center of hurricane Joaquin was located near latitude 23.0 north, longitude 74.4 west.
