Site offers up-to-date info on Hurricane Irene

Travelers following the growing storm of Irene in the Caribbean can track its progress via a site called Mashable (mashable.com), an American-based website and internet blog founded by Pete Cashmore.

The site has a dozen websites for tracking Hurricane Irene, which is making its way through the Caribbean and expected to slam the US’s East Coast this weekend. At the same time, hurricane predictors, as always, are not sure about details of when and where. And hurricanes routinely change their minds (or courses).

Irene, the first hurricane of the season, already has more than one dozen cruise ships scrambling their itineraries all across the eastern Caribbean. The storm knocked out power to 800,000 homes in Puerto Rico. The storm is expected to intensify as it heads northwest towards Florida.

Hurricane Irene, now a Category 3 storm packing winds of 115 miles per hour, was punishing the southeastern Bahamas. Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines have evacuated employees at their private Bahamian island resorts.
 

Some additional strengthening is forecast in the near future, and Irene could become a Category 4 storm by Thursday as it approaches Nassau and Freeport.
 

The US State Department issued a travel warning for US citizens in the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos, urging Americans there to "locate shelter, monitor media reports, and follow all official instructions."
 

President Obama has declared a state of emergency, which releases federal aid to help with local response efforts.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism says accommodations are open there but offered some advice to travelers planning to visit in the next few days:

"Based on the projected path and forecast of Hurricane Irene, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation is strongly recommending that those with plans to travel to The Bahamas within the next five days contact their hotel, airline or cruise line to postpone travel.”

Airlines have started issuing fee waivers for ticket changes in some of the affected areas. Flight delays are expected though details will have to come out later.

Passengers will want to check flight information via on line or by telephone.

Early airline moves:
 

—American Airlines through Friday is allowing passengers to change tickets until Aug. 31 to or from the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Haiti ,Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
 

—U.S. Airways is allowing passengers through Friday flights to change flights without penalties from Freeport, Bahamas; and Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Miami and West Palm Beach in Florida.

—JetBlue passengers through Thursday flights to or from Nassau, Bahamas, can be rebooked through Sunday.
 

—Delta passengers scheduled to travel through Thursday can reschedule flights through Sunday to or from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Bahamas.
 

—United Airlines od allowing passengers changes on flights through Friday to and from the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic.

By David Wilkening