Gustav packed sustained winds of 65 miles an hour and was centered 85 miles west of Kingston, Jamaica, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center’s website early this morning. Heading west-northwest at 8 mph, Gustav was predicted to bring as much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
“The whole island is affected by the system: It's still moving very slowly and dumping a lot of rain,'' Kerry-Ann Morris, a spokeswoman for Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, said today in a telephone interview from Kingston. The office reported "extensive flooding'' and at least four landslides, and said 920 people were in shelters.
The storm's approach prompted the evacuation of Gulf of Mexico oil workers. The governors of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi declared emergencies, and some Louisiana parishes prepared to evacuate residents. Gustav has already killed more than 50 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
There were no confirmed reports of casualties in Jamaica, where conditions were “calm'' at 4 a.m. after “horizontal rain'' earlier, Morris said. In Haiti, 51 people were killed, Agence France-Presse reported. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, eight people died and two were hurt in a landslide, the country's Center of Emergency Operations said on its website.
The Cayman Islands were warned to expect tropical storm- force winds of at least 39 mph today as Gustav approaches, the islands' National Hurricane Committee said on its Web site.
The U.S. hurricane center predicts Gustav will become a hurricane near the Caymans by early tomorrow. The system may strengthen further into a ``major'' hurricane, with winds of at least 111 mph before crossing the western tip of Cuba and entering the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 31, it said.
The current forecast shows Gustav making landfall in central Louisiana as a hurricane on Sept. 2. Avila said there are uncertainties in a forecast several days ahead, adding "if I lived on the Gulf coast, all the way from Texas to Florida, I'd be paying attention to this system.''