Lee's expected path as of 5 a.m. EDT on September 6, 2023. NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER

Tropical Storm Lee was approaching hurricane strength early Wednesday and is "expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous hurricane by the weekend," the National Hurricane Center says.

"Continued steady to rapid strengthening is forecast and Lee is expected to become a hurricane later (Wednesday) and a major hurricane in a couple of days," the center continued.

Forecasters say it's too soon to project where Lee is headed in the U.S. but for now the Leeward Islands, where the Caribbean and Atlantic meet, should stay alert. Lee could impact the Leewards this weekend, the center said.

As of 5 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Lee's center was some 1,265 miles east-southeast of the northern Leewards moving west-northwest at 14 mph and packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph — a pickup of 15 mph in mere hours. Once Lee's maximum sustained winds hit 74 mph, it will be a hurricane.

This comes just days after Hurricane Idalia left a path of destruction across the Southeast.

That storm made landfall Wednesday in Florida, where it razed homes and downed power poles. It then headed northeast, slamming Georgia, flooding many of South Carolina's beachfronts and sending seawater into the streets of downtown Charleston. In North Carolina, it poured more than 9 inches of rain on Whiteville, flooding downtown buildings.

Idalia claimed at least two lives, one in Florida and the other in Georgia.

Idalia's impact from damage and lost economic activity is expected to be in the $12 to $20 billion range, according to Moody's Analytics.

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