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PRAIA, Cape Verde (AP) — Hurricane Fred has caused flooding and downed trees in Cape Verde as it passes over the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
State-owned TV station Radiotelevisao Caboverdiana also reports Monday the Category 1 hurricane prompted officials to close all airports in the country of 10 volcanic islands with a population of 512,000.
Weather forecasters say Fred is the easternmost hurricane known to have formed in the Atlantic tropics, and the first to pass over Cape Verde as a hurricane.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Fred's maximum sustained winds Monday afternoon were near 137 kph (85 mph).
Fred was expected to produce rain accumulations of up to 25 centimeters (10 inches).
Gradual weakening was expected Tuesday. Cape Verde is about 570 kilometers (350 miles) off West Africa's coast.
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