WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Bermuda faced a rare one-two punch Tuesday as Hurricane Imelda set its sights on the tiny archipelago as it was brushed by the outer bands of Hurricane Humberto.

Imelda, which strengthened to a hurricane early Tuesday, was forecast to strike the British territory on Wednesday afternoon.

With maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kph), it is currently a Category 1, but additional strengthening is forecast over the next 48 hours, according to t4he US National Hurricane Center.

“These storms must be taken seriously, and I encourage all residents to make safety their priority,” said Bermuda’s Minister of National Security Michael Weeks.

Imelda is forecast to bring two to four inches (50 to 100 millimeters) of rainfall from Wednesday into Thursday, which could lead to flash flooding.

Dangerous storm surge could also cause coastal inundation.

Humberto, which has weakened to a Category 1 storm after peaking at a rare Category 5, was expected to begin tracking northeast later today while continuing to generate dangerous surf and rip currents across the western Atlantic region.

Earlier in the week the storm killed two people in Cuban provinces of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said on X.

Meteorologists say an unusual interaction between the two storms helped spare the US East Coast. The so-called “Fujiwhara interaction,” in which two nearby cyclones rotate around each other, prevented Imelda from making landfall on South Carolina’s coast.

“Almost like Mother Nature is throwing us a bone,” meteorologist Bryan Bennett wrote on X.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continues to forecast an above-normal season, though no storms have yet made US landfall.