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HAVANA : Tropical storm Fay dumped heavy rains on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, leaving eight people dead and six missing, as US weather experts forecast the system will strengthen to hurricane force as it approaches Cuba.
One person was killed and three were missing in the Dominican Republic due to the heavy rains Sunday, while thousands of people were evacuated to avoid the storm, local media reported.
In Haiti, the heavy rains killed seven people and left another three missing, civil protection officials told AFP.
Winds from the sixth storm of the Atlantic hurricane season were clocked at 70 kilometers (45 miles) per hour, the Miami-based US national Hurricane Center said.
But, the center said in its 2400 GMT report, "Strengthening could begin tonight or Sunday and Fay could be approaching hurricane strength as it nears Western Cuba."
At 0000 GMT the storm was located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba and about 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Camaguey, Cuba.
Fay was moving toward the west at 22 kilometers (14 miles) per hour, and expected to turn in a more northwesterly direction on Sunday and Monday.
The NHS forecasts it will skirt the island's southern coast, then the western tip of Cuba, before intensifying possibly to hurricane strength -- with sustained winds at least 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour. It will be near or over western Cuba late Sunday or Monday.
After crossing Cuba, Fay is then expected to head up the west coast of Florida, hitting land near Tampa on Tuesday afternoon and moving straight north into Georgia.
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 kilometers per hour (43 mph)," Ronald Semelfort, an official with Haiti's meteorological service, told AFP.
Civil Protection officials said the heavy rains killed seven people across the country and left three others missing, two near the capital Port-au-Prince and one in the southern part of the country.
Haiti's national weather service lifted a tropical storm warning on the island, but advised caution to people living in flood and landslide-prone areas.
With the storm expected to gather strength over the open water between Haiti and Cuba, Havana warned residents in the south to brace for the storm's arrival.
More than 15,000 people have been evacuated from Cuba's southern coastal areas, where Fay is expected to make landfall entre Matanzas y La Habana in the predawn hours Monday.
A hurricane watch was in effect for eight of Cuba's 14 provinces, including Havana. Tropical storm warnings were in effect in the Cayman Islands and southwestern Haiti, and a tropical storm watch in central Bahamas and Jamaica.
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.
- AFP/vm
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