A unique tropical depression heading towards Cuba and the Bahamas

Tropical Depression Fred was heading toward Cuba and the Bahamas Thursday on a path that could bring it to southern Florida by Saturday with tropical storm strength.

The main danger to the United States appears to be torrential rain in Florida and parts of the Southeast through Friday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The agency added that between 7.5 and 125 cm (3 and 5 inches) of rain is expected in the Florida Keys and the southern peninsula by Monday, with isolated spikes of up to 20 cm (8 inches).

With the strength of a tropical storm, it weakened into a depression as it passed through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, leaving some 300,000 users without power and causing flooding that forced officials to shut down part of the country’s aqueduct system.

Heavy rain continued in Hispaniola on Thursday, which is shared by both countries.

On Thursday morning, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 55 kph (35 mph) and its vortex was located about 125 kilometers (80 miles) west of Grand Inagua Island at the southern tip of the Bahamas. The hurricane center reported that 230 miles) east of Camaguey, Cuba.

It was moving from west to northwest at 22 km/h (14 mph).

Fred dumped between 7.5 and 12.5 cm (3 to 5 in) of rain in the Dominican Republic and western Bahamas, as well as between 2.5 and 7.5 cm (1 to 3 in) in Haiti, Turks and Caicos, eastern Bahamas and Cuba.

Fred became the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday afternoon as it passed through the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.