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Haiti Braces For Tropical Storm Gustav

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 26, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitians were told to prepare for evacuations as Tropical Storm Gustav formed quickly Monday in the Caribbean on a path to hit - as a hurricane - the country's denuded southern coast before moving on to Cuba, the Bahamas and possibly Florida.

Haiti upgraded storm warnings to hurricane warnings along much of its coast Monday as Gustav closed in from the south. The storm was traveling northwest at about 12 mph.

By Monday night, reports from an Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicated top sustained winds had reached nearly 60 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Forecasters said Gustav's center could pass near or over Haiti today.

It is too early to tell whether Gustav, the season's seventh named storm, will affect Florida.
Forecasters said Gustav's winds should peak at 75 mph as it crosses the western side of Haiti and as it reaches Cuba.

The storm is moving along the southern end of an area of high pressure over Florida that is pushing Gustav northwest, and forecasters think it will stick to that general path for the next several days.

Most hurricane center computer models show Gustav heading through the Caribbean, not into the Atlantic Ocean. The models diverge widely on where they expect the storm to be by Friday and Saturday. Hurricane center forecasters said there is "substantial uncertainty" in their projected location of the storm by the end of the workweek.

The storm's strength will depend largely on how much of the storm goes over the mountains of Haiti and eastern Cuba.

Some of the computer intensity models show Gustav growing weaker or maintaining its current strength, forecasters said.

Other models elevate Gustav to a Category 2 hurricane by Saturday.

Gustav is a compact storm, with its strongest winds extending about 40 miles from the center.

Tribune reporter Neil Johnson contributed to this report.

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