By Brian K. Sullivan
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Omar strengthened in the Caribbean south of Puerto Rico, causing the closure of a refinery in St. Croix, as forecasters said the storm will hit the Virgin Islands by early tomorrow.
Hurricane warnings were in place in the U.S. Virgin Islands, site of the Hovensa oil refinery, the third-biggest in the Americas; the British Virgin Islands; and islands including St. Maarten/St. Martin, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. A hurricane warning means sustained winds of at least 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour are expected within a day.
Omar's winds increased to 90 mph as it swirled 150 miles south-southwest of St. Croix, the center said in an advisory shortly before 5 p.m. Miami time. The system was moving east- northeast at 15 mph, after intensifying from a tropical storm late yesterday.
``Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours,'' the center said. ``Omar should be a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches the northern Leeward Islands'' by early tomorrow.
A Category 2 hurricane, the second-weakest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, has winds of 96 mph to 110 mph.
A hurricane warning may be required for Puerto Rico later today, the U.S. hurricane center said. Tropical-storm warnings, which indicate winds of 39 mph to 73 mph are likely within a day, were in place in Puerto Rico, Antigua, Barbuda and Montserrat.
Two days ago, Omar caused blackouts in Venezuela and halted shipping at Jose, one of the country's main oil terminals, the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
`Shutting Down'
``Hovensa LLC is in the process of shutting down essentially all its processing and auxiliary equipment at the St. Croix refinery except those necessary to maintain supply of power to the complex,'' Alex Moorhead, a spokesman for the facility, said by telephone.
The refinery handled 456,000 barrels a day in July, according to the latest U.S. Energy Department records. The U.S. mainland received 338,000 barrels a day of refined products from the plant. The refinery is jointly owned by Hess Corp. of New York and Petroleos de Venezuela.
Omar may bring as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain to the Netherlands Antilles and 20 inches to Puerto Rico and the northern Leeward Islands, the center said. Those rains could produce ``life-threatening'' flash floods and mudslides, it said.
Islands Batten Down
U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh Jr. closed schools, dismissed non-essential government workers this morning and ordered a curfew beginning at 6 p.m. local time, according to a statement.
``We will vigorously enforce this curfew as it is necessary that we clear the streets and avoid persons becoming injured by the effects of a tropical storm,'' Police Commissioner James McCall said in the statement on the governor's Web site.
The Public Works Department was distributing sandbags on all of the territory's islands.
To the west, the center of a tropical depression moved inland over Honduras and may bring as much as 15 inches of rain, threatening lethal flooding and landslides there and in Nicaragua, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the center said in a separate advisory. The system was 25 miles east- southeast of Limon, Honduras, and moving west at 7 mph, and its maximum sustained winds increased to 35 mph.
``Some strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours and the depression could become a tropical storm later today or tonight,'' the U.S. agency said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net
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