(Reuters) - Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane of 2011 Atlantic season, was gradually moving away from Puerto Rico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Irene, located about 55 miles west of San Juan, Puerto Rico and about 105 miles east of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic was packing maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 km/h).
The ninth named storm of the season, Irene remained on a course that could take it to Florida later in the week, NHC forecasters said.
Irene was moving toward the west-northwest near 14 mph (22 km/h) and this general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days, the NHC said.
The center of Irene will continue to move away from the north coast of Puerto Rico Monday morning and approach the northern coast of the Dominican Republic Monday afternoon and Monday night, the NHC added.
(Reporting by NR Sethuraman in Bangalore)
