MIAMI — (CNN) Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Erika have caused devastation on the Caribbean island of Dominica, leaving at least seven people dead and more than 20 missing, authorities said.
The storm is expected to reach hurricane status as it approaches South Florida on Monday.
Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said the storm caused “extensive damage” across the small island after floods wiped out roads and swamped villages.
He expressed particular concern for Petite Savanne, a community hit by mudslides that rescuers haven’t been able to reach yet.
“This is where many are feared lost,” Skerrit said.
The immediate focus for authorities is on search-and-rescue efforts, with other countries in the region providing helicopters and other assistance.
Skerrit said the task of repairing Dominica’s “dramatically affected” infrastructure would come later, estimating that the cost of fixing homes, roads, bridges and other structures would run into tens of millions of dollars.
The Prime Minister posted photos on his Facebook page of roads washed away by muddy brown flood waters and a video of a raging river spilling over its banks and swamping cars in a built-up area.
By late Thursday, the center of Erika had moved west-northwest, and Dominica was getting some relief from the downpours. The storm is forecast to gain strength as it nears Florida early next week.
The tropical storm warning in place currently includes islands from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas.
Erika was expected to produce rainfall of 4 to 8 inches — with a maximum of 12 inches possible — across parts of the Leeward Islands (which can include Dominica), the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the southeast Bahamas through Saturday.
“These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Erika’s maximum sustained winds were 45 mph, with higher gusts, the forecasting center said. Tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 140 miles from the center, it said.
The storm was expected to pass the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico overnight.
Natalie John, the chief executive officer of Dreamy Weddings & Tours Inc., said her staff and friends in Dominica “aren’t doing so well.”
“Erika has wreaked havoc there,” said John, who lives farther north on the island of St. Kitts.
An employee on Dominica told her that a friend’s family was missing after their house was swept away, she said.
At least one Dominica’s airports was badly damaged. Photos on the Prime Minister’s Facebook page of Douglas-Charles Airport showed a flooded runway and a small plane with water up to the doors.
Erika’s winds, light for a tropical storm, aren’t expected get much worse for at least a couple of days.
“No significant change in strength is anticipated during the next 48 hours,” the hurricane center said.
That doesn’t mean Erika — the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season — will sputter out.
By the end of the week, forecast models predict that the storm will intensify. It will pack 75 mph sustained winds as it approaches South Florida early next week, officials predict.
The U.S. Coast Guard warned ports in the south of the state late Thursday to prepare for the possibility of sustained gale force winds within 72 hours.
“Mariners are reminded that there are no safe havens in these facilities and that ports are safest when the inventory of vessels is at a minimum,” the coast guard statement said. “All oceangoing commercial vessels and oceangoing barges greater than 500 gross tons should make plans for departing the port.”
The five-day graphical forecast shows the storm taking a path up the east coast of the Sunshine State and remaining a hurricane through Tuesday.
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