Fred weaker, but likely to drench Florida as tropical storm

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Tropical depression Fred is heading for a drenching of Cuba and the Bahamas on a forecast track that would carry it toward South Florida as a tropical storm by Saturday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the main threat to the U.S. appears to be heavy rains affecting Florida and parts of the Southeast starting on Friday. A tropical storm watch was issued Thursday evening for the Florida Keys and the southwest coast of Florida. Fred became a tropical storm on Tuesday but weakened to a depression as it spun over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power to some 400,000 customers and caused flooding.