Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthens into hurricane while passing Puerto Rico

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday morning as it moved north of Puerto Rico.

In its 11 a.m. update , the National Hurricane Center located Ernesto about 175 miles northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 835 miles south-southwest of Bermuda.

It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, and was traveling northwest at 16 mph.

Forecasters say they still expect the storm to move over the western Atlantic later in the week and be near Bermuda by Friday.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the storm's center and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 230 miles, NHC officials say.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for the British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico as well as Vieques and Culebra.

Earlier in the week, Puerto Rico began to prepare.

Hurricane Maria in 2018 caused an estimated $90 billion in damage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, NHC said. Maria was the most destructive hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in modern times and the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Katrina and Harvey.

Maria also knocked down 80% of Puerto Rico's utility poles and all transmission lines, resulting in loss of power to essentially all of the island's 3.4 million residents. Nearly all cellphone and municipal water supplies also were knocked out.

Earlier this week, Ernesto Morales, a National Weather Service meteorologist and warnings coordinator, told The San Juan Daily Star, the atmospheric system could cause rains, floods, landslides and dangerous maritime conditions.

Debby was a Category 1 storm that made landfall in the Florida Panhandle and then moved through the U.S. Atlantic Coast last week.

Beryl struck parts of the Caribbean, the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of the United States in late June and early July.

Two tropical storms were in the Gulf of Mexico in June: Cindy and Alberto .