AlQa'dah 12, 1436, August 27, 2015, SPA -- The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Thursday that Tropical Storm Erika continued to strengthen as it reached the Eastern Caribbean and appeared to be headed for the U.S. East Coast early next week. The hurricane center said that Erika could reach hurricane status near Florida's east coast by Monday. Erika was 140 kilometers west of Guadalupe with maximum sustained winds of 80 kilometers per hour early Thursday. It was expected to reach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico by late Thursday, before passing north of the Dominican Republic Friday and continuing in a northwesterly direction over the Bahamas. The Florida State Emergency Operations Center was partially activated Wednesday as officials monitored the advancing storm. The last hurricane to hit Florida was Wilma in 2005.
