A greatly weakened Hurricane Katia was expected to pass between the US east coast and Bermuda in the next two days without making landfall, forecasters from the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center and analysts at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have included probabilities that Hurricane Katia could potentially make landfall in the New York City region.

The National Hurricane Center, in its latest advisory on Wednesday morning, says Tropical Storm Katia is gradually gaining strength as it moves quickly west-northwestward. Yesterday morning Katia was estimated to have maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour and was moving west-northwestward at 21 mph.

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) said Puerto Rico is open for business and fully operational for tourists after Hurricane Irene passed through last week. All hotels, casinos, airports and ferries are operating as normal on the main island as well as Culebra and Vieques.

Sandals Resorts has closed Beaches Resorts’ Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spas to new arrivals for 15 days after suffering “landscaping debris throughout the resort” in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, which struck the islands Wednesday night.

A decade after Nassau's famous straw market was destroyed by fire, hurricane Irene dealt it another blow, shredding the giant tent that had served as its temporary home since 2001. The market was set to move into a permanent building on Bay Street.