Washington - As Americans focused on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, two new storms threatened the United States and Mexico, with Tropical Storm Ernesto likely to hit Florida late Tuesday and Hurricane John menacing Mexico's Pacific Coast.
Florida was preparing for Ernesto to make landfall, with National Guard and law enforcement officers standing by to respond to the storm, Governor Jeb Bush said Tuesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who joined Bush in Florida, said that though the storm does not 'look like a catastrophic event,' it would provide an opportunity to test reforms in disaster response plans since Hurricane Katrina hit last year.
Ernesto could strengthen before reaching land, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida.
The storm was located Tuesday evening about 165 kilometres east of Key West, Florida and 165 kilometres south of Miami. It was moving 20 kilometres per hour and had wind speeds were reaching 75 kilometres an hour.
The looming severe weather caused NASA to move Space Shuttle Atlantis back into its hangar Tuesday, putting off the launch until further notice.
A tropical storm warning extended from Florida north into Georgia, and a hurricane watch was issued for the US East Coast as far north as Cape Fear, North Carolina.
Off the west coast of Mexico, Hurricane John, a category-1 storm with 145-kilometre-an-hour winds was moving at 15 kilometres an hour, located at 1800 GMT about 275 kilometres south of Acapulco.
The Mexican government has issued a tropical storm warning from Acapulco to Lazaro Cardenas.
John is the sixth hurricane this season on the Pacific coast of the Americas.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
