Dorian heads toward US southeast; new storm pointed at Mexico, south Texas

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Hurricane Dorian churned toward the US southeast coast on Wednesday as a weaker storm after landing a devastating blow to the Bahamas, while new tropical storms developed, one pointed at northeastern Mexico and south Texas and the other still a few days out in the Atlantic.

Now a Category 2  storm, Dorian lingered about 95 miles (153 km) east of Daytona Beach, Florida, moving north-northwestward at 8 miles/hour, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Forecasts call for a landfall in the Carolinas later this week.

Though Dorian has moved away from the US petrochemical hub in Texas and Louisiana, the storm’s latest path could put it close to Pennsylvania’s plants and projects by the weekend.

Philadelphia in that state set its port status to “Whiskey” because of Dorian’s projected path, signifying that a tropical or hurricane force storm is predicted to make landfall within 72 hours.

Pennsylvania has 40 petrochemical plants, according to ICIS plants and projects. Major producers have plants in or near the Philadelphia or Pittsburgh metro areas, with Ashland and Braskem near Philadelphia, and BASF, NOVA and PPG near Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fernand is now just a short distance east of the coast of northeastern Mexico and the Texas Rio Grande Valley, with a tropical storm warning in effect from Puerto Altamira to the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Once inland, the NHC forecast calls for rapid weakening of Fernand, which should dissipate on Thursday.

In the Atlantic, newly formed Tropical Storm Gabrielle surfaced several hundred miles west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. That storm is still closer to Africa than to the US or the island chains of the Caribbean.

Another unnamed low pressure system lurked just east of Bermuda, producing a lot of rainfall, though a forecast gave it only a 50% chance of reaching tropical storm force within the next five days.