Hurricane Debby Churns Toward Puerto Rico.

Hurricane Debby breezed past the northeast Caribbean islands on Tuesday, aiming gusting winds and battering waves at Puerto Rico's northern coast. Debby was just barely a hurricane, with top winds of 75 mph but forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said strengthening was likely by Wednesday. The storm whipped past Antigua and the other small islands of the Leeward chain early Tuesday, glanced north of the Virgin Islands and was expected to skirt Puerto Rico's northern coast by Tuesday night. The U.S. commonwealth of 3.8 million people battened down for the storm, opening emergency shelters and closing schools, government offices and courts. The government froze prices on necessities and residents crowded grocery stores and gas stations. At 2 p.m. EDT, Debby was 55 miles east-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, near latitude 18.7 north and longitude 65.2 west. Debby was zipping toward the west-northwest at 22 mph a path that could threaten Florida by Friday. Hurricane warnings were posted for the northeastern Caribbean from Anguilla westward through the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Puerto Rico was seeing the south side of the hurricane, not its strongest winds on the north. But residents took no chances -- hundreds bought large water tanks and taps ran dry overnight as people stored water.