Tropical Storm Irene roared into the north-eastern Caribbean Sunday with forecasters warning it could reach hurricane strength as it bore down on the Dominican Repuublic and quake-ravaged Haiti. The National Hurricane Center said the storm, the ninth of the Atlantic season, was moving from western Guadeloupe at a speed of 21 miles (33 kilometers) per hour with winds at nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour.
"Some strengthening is forecast during the next day or so, and Irene could become a hurricane on Monday," the center said. Hurricane warnings were up from the southern coast of the Dominican Republic to the Haitian border.
Haiti dodged a weather disaster earlier this month when it was brushed by Tropical Storm Emily, but Irene revived fears in a country where some 300,000 people still live in makeshift camps after a catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 225,000 people.
In the Haitian capital, the US embassy announced that the naval hospital ship USNS Comfort, which only arrived in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, would be forced to cease operations Sunday and seek safe haven due to the forecast. Haiti was the ship's final port of call at the end of a five-month humanitarian aid mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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