Tropical Storm Earl forms in Caribbean; no threat to US

A tropical wave responsible for at least six deaths in the Dominican Republic became Tropical Storm Earl Tuesday afternoon, and the system is expected to make landfall in Central America.

Earl has sustained winds of about 45 mph as of noon, and the storm is moving west at about 20 mph.

​Earl was threatening to bring heavy rains, flooding and high winds to Mexico, Belize and Honduras. All three of those countries issued Tropical Storm warnings for some areas, and a hurricane watch was issued for part of the Mexican coast.

Earl knocked down power lines as it scraped by the Dominican on Monday, starting a fire that killed six passengers on a bus filled with people returning from a beach excursion.