Hurricane Katia strengthened to a major category-4 storm late Monday but was expected to turn away from the U.S. east coast later this week, avoiding a direct hit on an area recently battered by Hurricane Irene. By late Monday, Katia's winds had intensified to 217 kilometers per hour (kph), making it a category-4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as it moved to the northwest on a path over the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Caribbean Sea, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The storm was moving at about 16 kph, and the NHC said it was expected to continue moving to the northwest through Wednesday. Forecasters said some fluctuations in strength were possible during the next 24 hours, followed by slow weakening. Forecasters and residents on the U.S. east coast have been anxiously watching Katia after Irene moved up the region from the Carolinas to Maine last weekend, killing at least 40 people and causing extensive flooding, especially in New Jersey and Vermont. Katia, the second hurricane of the June-to-November Atlantic season, has kept forecasters guessing for days about its potential threat to the United States. The most recent five-day forecasts predicted the storm would turn north and then northeastward starting Thursday between Bermuda and the U.S. coast, pushed away from the mainland United States by a developing low-pressure trough. Even though the storm is not currently expected to hit the U.S. coast, the NHC warned that beaches should still be vigilant in the coming week for large waves generated by Katia that could cause life-threatening coastal surf and rip currents.
