By The Star Staff
While Tropical Storm Franklin threatened the southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Wednesday and into today, in Puerto Rico as of Wednesday afternoon heavy rains were reported only on the offshore island municipality of Vieques.
But according to the National Hurricane Service (NHS), Puerto Rico is still not off the hook as heavy rains from the storm system are expected on the island through today.
The storm is expected to dump one to two inches of rain, with heavier rain being forecast for the southern part of the island.
Isolated areas may receive up to six inches of rain.
The heavy rain may produce areas of flash flooding and urban flooding.
On Tuesday, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 89 miles per hour (mph) and was stalled at a drift of 7 mph.
Puerto Rico will be spared tropical storm-force winds, according to the NHS.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Harold made landfall on Padre Island, Texas, on Tuesday morning after forming in the Gulf of Mexico overnight, capping an extraordinarily busy 48 hours for an Atlantic hurricane season that saw three other storms -- Emily, Franklin and Gert -- form in quick succession.
Harold was the first storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season to make landfall.
More than 1.2 million people along the eastern coast of Texas were under a tropical storm warning as of around 1:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the weather service. Close to 35,000 people in the state were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
By 1 p.m., the core of the storm had moved inland, forecasters said. Harold was moving west-northwest at around 21 mph toward southern Texas and northern Mexico, they said.