Tropical Storm Gustav hit Jamaica with near hurricane-force winds this evening after killing at least 59 people elsewhere in the Caribbean and taking aim at New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico oil fields, where it could become a major hurricane next week.
As Gustav churned through the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Hanna formed in the Atlantic Ocean with 40-mph winds and on a track that could take it toward the Bahamas and Florida, also next week, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Energy companies prepared for Gustav to deliver potentially the hardest hit to the heart of the US Gulf oil patch since the devastating 2005 hurricane season. Crude futures rose more than $2 to $120.50 a barrel before falling back as Gustav aimed deep into the heavy concentration of oil and natural gas platforms off Louisiana and Texas.
Prices eased after the US Energy Department said it was prepared to open its emergency oil supply and the International Energy Agency said member nations were ready to release strategic oil stocks in the event of significant supply disruptions in
an area that provides the United States with a quarter of its crude oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas.
The seventh storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season was 40 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, by 2pm (local time), the hurricane centre said.
Its top sustained winds were 70 mph, just short of the 74-mph hurricane threshold. Forecasters said it could become a hurricane at any moment.
New Orleans, the Southern US city devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, remained near the middle of the range of possible landfall locations on the US Gulf Coast.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal put New Orleans residents on alert for possible evacuations from Friday, the third anniversary of Katrina's strike, and issued a precautionary disaster declaration. A state of emergency was declared in neighboring Mississippi, which was also devastated by Katrina.
In Jamaica, shops, post offices and schools shut their doors and authorities ordered nonessential workers to stay home as Gustav neared and began buffeting the lush, mountainous island with high winds and torrential rains.
"I just saw part of my roof blow away," said Phillip Wright, resident of an eastern parish where extensive storm-related damage to some homes was reported.
"This looks very serious. It is windy, rainy, trees are also falling down and we have no electricity," Wright told Reuters by telephone.
Gustav barged ashore as a hurricane in Haiti on Tuesday and its driving rains killed at least 59 people there and in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
"There are 51 people killed," Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection office, said today, She said the deaths occurred primarily as a result of flooding and mudslides in western and southern Haiti.