Tropical Storm Humberto is poised to hit the same northern Bahamian islands that Hurricane Dorian ravaged earlier this month.
A Tropical Storm Warning remains in effect for the northwestern Bahamas.
The system is expected to send heavy rain and stiff winds to the Abaco Islands by Friday night and Grand Bahama island by Saturday morning, areas where teams are still searching for hundreds of people reported missing in the aftermath of Dorian.
The storm strengthened into a tropical storm named Humberto, with maximum sustained winds of at least 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Regardless of wind strength, "there will be rain ... over (an) area that certainly doesn't need any rain," meteorologist Chad Myers said.
Heavy rain expected over Dorian-impacted islands
From Friday evening through Sunday morning, this system could generally bring 2 to 4 inches of rain to Great Abaco. That island is home to Marsh Harbour, a town where Dorian destroyed about 1,100 buildings.
Isolated sections of the northwestern Bahamas could see up to 6 inches of rain, the NHC says.
Rain totals could be lower -- perhaps 1 to 3 inches -- on Grand Bahama.
Officials in eastern Grand Bahama urged residents to move to a shelter if they were living in buildings with damage, such as compromised roofs.
The storm is not expected to make landfall on the US Southeast coast. The coastal areas from central Florida into South Carolina, though, could receive 2 to 4 inches of rain through Sunday, the hurricane center says.
After that, the storm could head toward Bermuda in the middle of next week as a hurricane.
The storm comes as the Atlantic hurricane season reaches it statistical peak in the weeks surrounding September 10, a period when weather conditions favor storms forming quickly.
