Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency for the state’s Panhandle region as Tropical Storm Fred moved through the Gulf of Mexico early on Sunday and parts of the Caribbean were preparing for the impact from Tropical Storm Grace. Fred was forecast to move across the Gulf before reaching the coast Monday night or Tuesday morning, forecasters said. They said people from Alabama to the central Florida Panhandle should monitor the system’s progress. A tropical storm warning is now in effect for the coast of the Florida panhandle from Navarre to the Wakulla/Jefferson county line, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area in the next 24 hours. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the coast of the Florida Panhandle from the Alabama/Florida border to Navarre. Fred’s maximum sustained winds stood at 40mph (65kph) on Sunday morning. Anticipating Fred, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, declared a state of emergency for the state’s Panhandle region. And the Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, issued a statement Saturday saying her administration was monitoring the weather and “will be ready to act from the state level if needed”. Fred was located early Sunday about 335 miles (555 km) south-southeast of Pensacola, Florida, and moving north-north-west at 12mph . Fred had been downgraded to a tropical wave on Saturday. Tropical waves can contain winds and heavy rain, but do not circulate around a center point or an “eye” like a tropical storm or hurricane. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Grace was 85 miles south of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday morning. Forecasters said heavy rainfall from the system would fall over parts of the Lesser and Greater Antilles over the next few days. Tropical storm warnings were issued for the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and part of the Dominican Republic, meaning they will likely be hit by Grace. A tropical storm watch was also issued for the Haiti, which is already dealing with devastation from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake this weekend that has left more than 700 people dead. Grace had maximum sustained winds around 40mph. The storm was moving west-north-west at 16mph. Both Grace and Fred, regardless of their storm status, posed a heavy rain and flood threat, forecasters said. Rainfall totals around 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15cm) were forecast from Grace for the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, through Tuesday. Fred was forecast to bring 4 to 8 inches to the Big Bend of Florida and the Panhandle from Sunday night into Tuesday. A tropical storm earlier in the week, Fred had weakened to a depression by its spin over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it knocked out power to some 400,000 customers and caused flooding that forced officials to shut part of the country’s aqueduct system, interrupting water service for hundreds of thousands of people. Local officials reported hundreds of people were evacuated and some buildings were damaged.