Hurricane could strike US Gulf Coast this weekend, forecasters warn

Weeks after parts of the US were devastated by a pair of deadly hurricanes, forecasters are warning that another one could strike America’s Gulf Coast over the weekend.

The newly formed tropical depression is currently lingering around 45 miles away the south west Caribbean island of San Andres.

But America’s National Hurricane Center has warned it is expected to become a tropical storm. It then expects the storm to develop into a Category 1 hurricane over the weekend when it will hit somewhere between Mobile, Alabama and Florida’s capital, Tallahassee.

The announcement comes less than a month after large swathes of the southern US and Caribbean islands were left devastated by a series of hurricanes

Hurricane Harvey lashed Texas causing flooding that put it on the scale of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

It was followed by one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, Hurricane Irma, which ravaged several islands in the northern Caribbean before churning into Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Lloyd’s of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd estimated on Monday that it would face net claims totalling about $225m (£170m) from Harvey and Irma, as insurers and reinsurers count the cost of the hurricanes.

Hurricane Maria later struck the island of Puerto Rico – a US territory. The Mayor of the island’s capital, Carmen Yulia Cruz called the devastation “something close to genocide”.

Almost two weeks on, nearly half of all Puerto Ricans remain without power, and many have limited access to food and water.

Oxfam International – a global organisation working to end world poverty – has ste

pped in to help, citing the US government's "slow and inadequate response".

President Donald Trump finally visited the island earlier this week after sparring with Ms Cruz, after she took to the airwaves earlier this week to beg for assistance for the island's capital.

"Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help," Mr Trump tweeted. "They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."

After meeting with officials on the island At the meeting, Mr Trump joked that recovery efforts had hampered the federal budget.

“I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack, because we have spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico – and that’s fine,” he said.

He also said that said Puerto Rico should be “very proud” of the death toll from Hurricane Maria, contrasting it to the “thousands” of people who died in Hurricane Katrina.