Storm Fay to become hurricane threat to Cuba, US

Tropical Storm Fay threatened to strengthen into a hurricane as it moved toward Cuba after dousing Haiti and the Dominican Republic yesterday with torrential rains and killing at least one person.

The sixth cyclone of what experts predict will be an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season, Fay was expected to be near hurricane strength when it approaches Cuba on Sunday and at hurricane strength over the Florida Keys and off Florida's west coast after that, US forecasters said.

Areas of the Gulf of Mexico where around a quarter of US oil and 15 per cent of US natural gas are produced did not appear to be at immediate risk. But long-range storm forecasts are prone to error, especially when it comes to intensities.

The more time that Fay spends over the warm waters that provide tropical storms with fuel the stronger it will get.

The government of Cuba issued a hurricane watch, signalling hurricane conditions could be expected within 36 hours, for the central provinces of Camaguey, Ciego de Avila and Sancti Spiritus, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

A 34-year-old Dominican woman died and two nephews, aged 13 and 5, were missing after being swept away when flood waters raged through a gully around 140 km east of Santa Domingo and engulfed their truck, the Caribbean country's emergency operations centre said.