Cruise Industry Readies for Tropical Storm Erika

The cruise industry has been put on notice as Tropical Storm Erika continues to make its way through the Caribbean and toward Florida.

In a report from Gina Kramer of CruiseCritic.com, Carnival Cruise Lines was forced to adjust its itinerary for the Carnival Conquest cruise ship due to the approaching storm. The Conquest left Fort Lauderdale on August 23 and was scheduled to visit St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan and Grand Turk during the eight-night cruise.

Carnival made the decision to cancel the ship’s calls in both St. Maarten and St. Kitts to avoid getting directly in front of the projected route of the storm. Instead, the Conquest will now visit San Juan for two days and add a stop in Nassau as well.

Tropical Storm Erika has already caused officials to announce formal storm watches in Anguilla, Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Barts, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, St. Martin and other islands as well.

The storm is expected to make landfall in Florida Saturday, and both Carnival and Royal Caribbean International have ships scheduled to be in the areas potentially impacted by the storm over the next several days.

The official Twitter account of the National Weather Service – Miami shared an illustration of the tropical storm and its projected path:

Tropical Storm #Erika @ 200 PM, 8/26/15. Monitor progress of storm & review preparedness plans. #flwx #SoFla pic.twitter.com/hEmI33NkJQ

— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) August 26, 2015

Kristina Pydynowski of AccuWeather.com is reporting that Tropical Storm Erika will bring rain, wind and rough surf to the region, but it hasn’t been strong enough to cause any major damage and is not expected to strengthen rapidly.

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