Hurricane Cristobal remains no threat to Florida and will likely stay off the U.S. East Coast, but it has claimed five lives and gained the attention of the island of Bermuda.

The Category 1 hurricane, located about 500 miles southwest of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean, is generating dangerous surf and rip current conditions from central Florida to North Carolina.

"It is not a very well organized hurricane as hurricanes go," Bay News 9 meteorologist Josh Linker said. "However, what we’ve noticed over the last few hours is a little burst of convection near what is the storm's center, or on top of the center. It's at a safe distance from the Bahamas, and really, the only place that has any potential concern from this is Bermuda."

Bermuda, a British overseas territory located 640 miles west-northwest of Cape Hatteras, N.C., remains under a tropical storm watch. The storm is moving north-northeast at about 12 mph, and Linker said it should pass well to the west of the island. It is forecast to turn toward the northeast Wednesday and Wednesday night.

"Computer models show the trough coming off the east coast is going to pick it up and send it out to sea, and it should actually even stay free and clear of the Canadian Maritimes and just be a fish storm," Linker said. "Eventually, it will weaken, staying out in the cooler waters of the north Atlantic."

Cristobal has pulled drier air and breezy conditions to the Tampa Bay area, and those are expected to continue through tomorrow. The rain chance tonight and tomorrow is minimal - about 10 percent - according to the Bay News 9 weather team. By Friday, though, rain will return to the area and the probability jumps to 60 percent.

Even missing Bermuda, Cristobal is expected to dump up to 4 inches of rain over Bermuda and lesser amounts over the already sodden Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos.

The Turks and Caicos said flights resumed Tuesday at the islands' international airport, which closed as the hurricane dumped some 12 inches on the islands. The governor's office reported one death after recovering a body from floodwaters on the main island of Providenciales.

Floodwaters killed two men in the Dominican Republic and two people in Haiti, where roughly 640 families were left temporarily homeless.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

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