A disturbance in the Caribbean, now being called Potential Tropical Cyclone 9, will likely strengthen to a tropical storm over the weekend, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Friday.

The system will be named Imelda and is expected to strengthen in the Atlantic next week as it nears the U.S. East Coast.

Portions of the Georgia and Carolinas coasts could see heavy rain and storm surge from the system and should watch its progress and track, forecasters said.

The system was just off Cuba's coast at 4 p.m. Friday and was moving northwest at 9 mph. It has maximum winds of 35 mph.

Forecasters say it could be a tropical storm by 1 a.m. Sunday.

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