(Bloomberg) -- A weakened Hurricane Jose could graze the Northeast asHurricane Maria tears through the Caribbean, gaining strength andpossibly heading toward the U.S. in a week.

Jose will probably be downgraded to a tropical storm as it comesclose to Massachusetts Wednesday — threatening shipping andreal estate along the East Coast — before veering farther outinto the Atlantic, the U.S. NationalHurricane Center said. Storm watches have been posted fromDelaware to Massachusetts.

Related: Hurricane Irma travels up te East Coast, sparingfew

The two storms build on a devastating 2017 Atlantic hurricaneseason, coming just after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma left dozens ofpeople dead and upended energy and agriculture markets. Since Aug.25, the U.S. has suffered an estimated $143 billion in damage fromTexas flooding caused by Harvey and damage to Florida by Irma,according to Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.

Big surf, beach erosion

Some models bring Jose “very close to Nantucket and Cape Cod, butit is not going to be a very powerful hurricane at that point,”said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Weather Underground inBoulder, Colorado. “The biggest implication will be multiple daysof big surf and probably beach erosion.”

In the Caribbean, Maria is growing in power and will hit some ofthe islands wrecked by Irma about two weeks ago, along with others.It could strike Puerto Rico as a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday.Jose and Maria are two of 13 named Atlantic storms this season,which has so far killed at least 100 people. The average yearproduces 12 storms.

If the estimates hold, this will be the second most costly yearfor hurricane damage since 1980 behind 2005, when a record 28storms formed in the Atlantic and Katrina devastated New Orleans,according to the U.S. National Centers for EnvironmentalInformation in Asheville, North Carolina.

Not including the hurricanes, the U.S. has suffered nine weatherand climate disasters costing $1 billion or more through the firstseven months of 2017, the agency said.

Jose’s track north could disrupt vessels carrying crude oil,petrochemicals and refined products along the Atlantic seaboard,Shunondo Basu, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance meteorologist andnatural gas analyst in New York, said on Friday.

Flooding threat

Jose’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to about 85 miles perhour (140 kilometers per hour), the NHC said. The main threat willprobably be coastal flooding because its arrival will coincide withthe new moon, when tides are at their highest, said Dave Samuel, ameteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College,Pennsylvania.

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On top of that, Jose could bring as much as 5 inches (13centimeters) of rain across eastern Long Island into Rhode Islandand Massachusetts.

Henson said Jose will then transform into a hybrid storm,becoming much larger as its strongest winds drift away from itscenter. This is similar to what happened with Sandy, but therewon’t be a repeat of the 2012 storm that caused widespreaddestruction in New Jersey and New York.

Maria's path similar to Irma's

Maria is expected to become a major hurricane by tonight or earlyTuesday, the NHC said.

By next week, Maria could become the primary U.S. threat. Muchcan change before then, and the storm may drift out to sea, Hensonsaid. There’s also a chance it could menace Florida and the U.S.Southeast.

Related: Florida's state-run insurers look good forHurricane Irma rebuilding

Hurricane warnings are in place for Montserrat, St. Kitts,Nevis, Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique. A watch has been issuedfor Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, U.S. Virgin Islands, as well asthe British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Maarten, St.Barthelemy, Anguilla, Saba and St. Eustatius.

“Maria is tracking eerily similar of the path Irma took,”AccuWeather’s Samuel said.

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