Tropical Storm Cristobal grew in strength Sunday and lashed parts of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands with heavy rainfall and white-crested surf. According to AP, the storm was upgraded from a tropical depression Sunday morning. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm may strengthen into a hurricane on Wednesday while over the open waters of the Atlantic. The storm's center was expected to curve away from the U.S. East Coast. Residents in the sparsely populated southeastern Bahamas and the tiny British Caribbean dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands hunkered down as Cristobal's rains pelted windowpanes. Authorities in the Bahamas, a sprawling archipelago off Florida's east coast that is accustomed to stormy weather, urged people on southeastern and central islands to complete "all the necessary preparation to protect life and property, primarily from flooding in flood-prone areas."
