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HAVANA : The US state of Florida declared an emergency on Sunday as tropical storm Fay bore down on Cuba after barrelling across the Dominican Republic and Haiti where it left two dead and four missing.
Cuban authorities began evacuating people in the path of the storm with winds reaching 85 kilometres as heavy rains from Fay battered its eastern coast.
One person was killed and three were missing in floods in the Dominican Republic while thousands of people were evacuated to avoid the storm, local media reported.
In Haiti, the heavy rains killed one person in the north and another was missing in the south, civil protection officials told AFP.
Winds from the sixth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season were clocked at 85 kilometres an hour, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre said.
But, the centre said in its latest report, "some strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours and Fay could be approaching hurricane strength when it reaches Central Cuba."
Experts fear that Fay could turn into a cyclone as it crosses Cuba on Sunday. The NHS had forecast winds of at least 120 kilometres an hour.
After crossing Cuba, Fay is then expected to head up the west coast of Florida, hitting the Florida Keys by Monday afternoon.
A hurricane watch was declared in the Florida Keys, with authorities closing local schools and telling tourists to evacuate the area, US media reported.
A tropical storm watch was in effect on the southeast coast of Florida, with Governor Charlie Crist declaring a state of emergency.
In Miami, residents began descending on gas stations and supermarkets to fill up their gas tanks and stock up on bottled water and other emergency items in anticipation of Fay's arrival early next week.
Local television stations broadcast warnings about possible business shutdowns and power cuts.
In the Dominican Republic, a woman drowned in a swollen creek and her two nephews and another person were missing, the Listin Diario newspaper said on its website.
More than 2,000 Dominicans were evacuated to shelters as the storm felled trees, damaged hundreds of houses and knocked out power to more than 15,000 homes, according to local news reports.
Fay, earlier, raked across Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, and red alerts were posted along with orders to evacuate flood zones as heavy rains and winds battered much of the country.
"Most of Haiti is under heavy rains, especially in the south, with winds clocked at about 70 kilometres per hour," Ronald Semelfort, an official with Haiti's meteorological service, told AFP.
"A person was killed in the city of Fond-Verettes and another was missing in the southern part of the country where local authorities have begun evacuating areas at risk" from flooding, Civilian Protection Agency director Alta Jean-Baptiste told AFP. - AFP/de
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