 While crossing the mountainous terrain of Hispaniola , Katie became very disorganized and rapidly weakened to a tropical storm early on October 17 , within a few hours after moving inland . Later that day , the storm emerged into the Atlantic Ocean just east of Puerto Plata , Dominican Republic . Katie began accelerating to the northeast on October 18 . During that time , the storm re @-@ intensified and briefly approached hurricane intensity , although it failed to strengthen further due to interaction with a cold front . After passing just east of Bermuda on October 19 , the storm transitioned into an extratropical cyclone . The remnants of Katie were last observed the following day . 
