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MIAMI - Hurricane Omar is churning toward the Virgin islands gaining strength that has prompted authorities to issue warnings across much of the northeastern Caribbean.
"Omar continues to strengthen as it moves closer to the northern Leeward islands," said the National Hurricane Center in Miami in a bulletin issued shortly before 2100 GMT.
"Heavy rainbands are already affecting the Virgin islands," it added, putting the eye of the storm 245 kilometers southwest of Saint Croix and 280 kilometers south of Puerto Rico's capital San Juan.
Moving at a speed of 24 kilometers an hour, the hurricane is packing winds of up to 150 kilometers an hour.
Designated a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center forecast "additional stengthening" by late Thursday, reaching category two by the time it hits land.
The five-level Saffir-Simpson scale measures the potential damage and flooding that a hurricane might cause upon landfall.
Hurricane warnings are in effect in the US Virgin Islands and a chain of outlying Puerto Rican islands one of which hosts the Caribbean's main air hub after Puerto Rico.
The busy 2008 hurricane season has included devastating Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which caused millions of dollars in damage in Haiti, Cuba and the United States.
Hurricanes and tropical storms have killed hundreds across the Caribbean and in Mexico, with Haiti -- the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere -- being the worst hit.
AFP/sf
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