Officials have temporarily suspended aid efforts and closed airports in the Bahamas on Saturday as Tropical Storm Humberto threatened to lash the archipelago’s north-west region that was already hit by Hurricane Dorian two weeks ago.

Humberto’s arrival coincides with a weekend visit to the Bahamas by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aimed at supporting humanitarian aid efforts in the wake of Dorian, which reached the islands as a massive Category-5 storm and left thousands of people in need of food, water and shelter.

Threatening to exacerbate the problem, winds and rains from Humberto could be expected in Grand Bahama and the nearby Abaco islands, said chief meteorologist Shavonne Moxey-Bonamy.

“I know it might be a bit of a disheartening situation since we just got out of Dorian,” she said.

Hurricane Dorian damage
Mos Antenor drives a bulldozer while clearing the road after Hurricane Dorian hit at Mclean’s Town, Grand Bahama, (Ramon Espinosa/AP/PA)

Humberto was located 30 miles east-northeast of Great Abaco island, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.

It had maximum sustained winds of 40mph and was moving northwest at seven mph. There was a tropical storm warning in effect for the north-west Bahamas, except for Andros Island, and two to four inches of rain was expected, with isolated amounts of six inches.

“Rains are the biggest issue right now,” parliament member Iram Lewis said by telephone. “People are still reeling from the first storm.”

Humberto is forecast to become a hurricane by Sunday but is expected to stay offshore of Florida’s eastern coast as it moves toward open waters. Portions of the coasts of Florida and Georgia will see one to two inches of rain.

The hurricane centre said most of the heavy squalls were occurring north and east of the centre of the storm, which was passing just east of Abaco.

However, government officials in the Bahamas took no chances and urged people in damaged homes to seek shelter as they announced that aid efforts would be temporarily affected.

“The weather system will slow down logistics,” said Carl Smith, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency.

The distribution of meals in Grand Bahama was reduced ahead of the storm and a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program said all flights into its logistics hub in Marsh Harbor in Abaco were suspended.