SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Rafael swirled past the Cayman Islands and was expected to rapidly intensify before making landfall on Wednesday in western Cuba, where it’s forecast to hit as a Category 2 hurricane.

It was another stroke of bad news for Cuba, which has been struggling with blackouts while recovering from another hurricane two weeks ago that killed at least six people in the eastern part of the island.

The storm was located about 120 miles (190 kilometers) southeast of the Isle of Youth, and around 195 miles (310 kilometers) south-southeast of Havana. It had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph) and was moving northwest at 14 mph (22 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Forecasters warned that Rafael was expected to slam into Cuba on Wednesday after dumping rain on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Tuesday. The center warned of floods, storm surges and mudslides.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory for Cuba on Tuesday afternoon, offering departure flights to non-essential staff and American citizens, and advising others to “reconsider travel to Cuba due to the potential impact of Tropical Storm Rafael.”

On Tuesday morning, the Cuban Civil Defense called on Cubans to prepare as soon as possible, because when the storm makes landfall “it’s important to stay where you are.” The day before, authorities said they had issued an evacuation order for 37,000 people in far eastern Cuba, in the province of Guantanamo, due to bad weather.

A hurricane warning was in effect Tuesday for the Cayman Islands and the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas and the Isle of Youth.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus and Ciego de Avila, as well as the lower and middle Florida Keys from Key West to west of the Channel 5 Bridge, and Dry Tortugas. The warning was lifted in Jamaica after the storm passed by the western coast. A tropical storm watch was in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey and Las Tunas.

Rafael on Tuesday knocked out power in Jamaica and unleashed flooding and landslides.

The Jamaica Public Service, the island’s electricity provider, said in a statement late Tuesday that impassable roads were preventing crews from restoring power in some areas.

Meanwhile, crews in Little Cayman and Cayman Brac were expected to fan out early Wednesday to assess damage after a direct hit late Tuesday.

Power outages were reported across the Cayman Islands, and schools remained closed on Wednesday.

“While conditions have improved on Grand Cayman, residents are advised to exercise extreme caution on the roads and near coastlines as rough seas and residual flooding risks may persist,” the government said in a statement.

Forecasters warned Rafael would unleash heavy rains across the western Caribbean that could lead to flooding and mudslides in parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Heavy rainfall also was expected to spread north into Florida and nearby areas of the southeast U.S. during the middle to late part of the week. The Hurricane Center predicted storm surges in Florida could reach 1 to 3 feet in Dry Tortugas and 1 to 2 feet in the Lower Florida Keys. A few tornadoes also were expected Wednesday over the Keys and southwestern Florida.

Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety regulator has ended a 2 1/2-year investigation into Ford engine failures after the company replaced engines or extended the warranty on some vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted Monday on its website that its analysis traced the problem to intake valves that can fracture inside some 2.7-liter and 3-liter turbocharged engines.

Documents say the probe opened in May of 2022 ended up covering more than 411,000 vehicles from the 2021 and 2022 model years including the Ford F-150 Bronco, Edge and Explorer as well as the Lincoln Aviator and Nautilus.

The agency was looking into catastrophic engine failures caused by intake valves fracturing, dropping into the cylinder and hitting the piston.

The documents say a forensic analysis of fractured valves found that when the they were made by a parts supplier, the temperature got too high, making them brittle and likely to fracture during normal engine use.

An analysis of failure report data found that the faulty valves were made from May through October of 2021, the agency said. Ford contended that not all valves produced during this period were faulty and that a vast majority of the failures happened before the vehicles were driven 20,000 miles.

An agency statistical analysis to predict the number of failures, and an analysis of failure reports “are generally consistent” with Ford’s determination that the valves would fail at low mileage, and the majority of vehicles with the faulty valves “have already experienced a failure,” the agency said.

Earlier this year Ford recalled about 91,000 vehicles with valves made during the suspect period. They’ll be tested and get a new engine if necessary. The company also extended the warranty on vehicles with valves made during the period to 10 years or 150,000 miles, the documents said.

During the investigation, the agency said it found 396 customer complaints, 825 warranty claims and 936 engine replacements. There were no reported crashes or injuries.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett is now sitting on more than $325 billion cash after continuing to unload billions of dollars worth of Apple and Bank of America shares this year and continuing to collect a steady stream of profits from all of Berkshire Hathaway’s assorted businesses without finding any major acquisitions.

Berkshire said it sold off about 100 million more Apple shares in the third quarter after halving its massive investment in the iPhone maker last quarter. The remaining stake of roughly 300 million shares was valued at $69.9 billion at the end of September remains Berkshire’s biggest single investment, but it has been cut drastically since the end of last year when it was worth $174.3 billion.

Investors will also be disappointed to learn that Berkshire didn’t repurchase any of its own shares in the quarter.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said shareholders will wonder why Buffett is continuing to accumulate so much cash. “Are they more pessimistic about the future economic and market picture than perhaps others are?” she said.

Buffett said at the annual meeting in May that part of why he started selling some of his Apple shares is that he expects tax rates to go higher in the future. But Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he wonders if part of the reason Buffett started selling Apple is tied to last year’s death of Vice Chairman Charlie Munger because the sales started shortly after Munger’s death. Shanahan said Buffett has never been as comfortable with technology businesses as his longtime partner was.

“If Charlie Munger were still alive, perhaps he wouldn’t have sold down the position quite as aggressively — maybe at all,” Shanahan said.

Berkshire said Saturday that investment gains again drove its third quarter profits skyward to $26.25 billion, or $18,272 per Class A share. A year ago, unrealized paper investment losses dragged the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s earnings down to a loss of $12.77 billion, or $8,824 per Class A share.

Buffett has long recommended that investors pay more attention to Berkshire’s operating earnings if they want to get a good sense of how the businesses it owns are doing because those numbers exclude investments. Berkshire’s bottom-line profit figures can vary widely from quarter to quarter along with the value of its investments regardless of whether the company bought or sold anything.

By that measure, Berkshire said its operating earnings were only down about 6% at $10.09 billion, or $7,023.01 per Class A share. That compares to last year’s $10.8 billion, or $7,437.15 per Class A share.

The four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted that Berkshire would report operating earnings of $7,335.11 per Class A share.

Berkshire’s revenue didn’t change much at $92.995 billion. A year ago, it reported $93.21 billion revenue. That number was ahead of the $92.231 billion revenue that three analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted.

Berkshire owns an assortment of insurance businesses, including Geico, along with BNSF railroad, several major utilities and a varied collection of retail and manufacturing businesses, including brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.

One of Berkshire’s insurers, Guard, reported some additional losses on previous years after managers reassessed its policies.

Berkshire did resolve one mystery from the quarter by spelling out how much it paid to acquire the rest of the shares in its utility business from the estate of former Berkshire board member Walter Scott.

Berkshire said it paid $2.4 billion cash, issued $600 million in debt and gave the Scott family Class B Berkshire shares worth a little over $1 billion. So the total compensation was about $4 billion. That means the Scott family didn’t get nearly as good of a price for their 8% stake in the utilities as when Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel sold his 1% stake in the utility business two years ago for $870 million.

Abel is slated to succeed the 94-year-old Buffett as CEO in the event of his death.