Civil defense officials here said another seven people were missing and 22 were injured from the ravages of the storm and subsequent flooding that accounts for many of the casualties.

The storm struck the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as a Category One hurricane on Tuesday. But its impact was still being felt in Haiti Thursday, where rising waters triggered mud slides and churning, swollen ocean waves.

Meanwhile, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami announced that a new tropical storm, Hanna, is brewing in the Atlantic -- the eighth so far this hurricane season -- and has the potential to become yet another devastating storm.

Officials said most of the casualties were in the southeast of Haiti, where 25 people died. Many of the dead and injured were victims of falling trees or simply were unable to escape the rising flood waters, officials here said.

Gustav also destroyed untold numbers of homes, bridges and other structures that were submerged after flooding inundated entire villages in Haiti.

The impact of Gustav also was beginning to be felt in Jamaica, where the storm continued its trail of destruction, uprooting trees and tearing the roofs off dwellings.

Forecasters said it was possible that Gustav eventually would intensify into a more powerful Category Three storm before it eventually dies out.

At 1800 GMT the center of Gustav was near the eastern tip of Jamaica, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Kingston and about 335 miles (540 kilometers) east-southeast of Grand Cayman.

The storm was moving west at near five miles (seven kilometers) per hour and was expected to reach the tiny British overseas territory Cayman Islands by Friday night.

The impending arrival of Gustav sent inhabitants of coastal communities in Jamaica, Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean fleeing to higher ground, and caused holiday travelers to abandon their vacation plans.

Motorists in the Jamaican capital Kingston cleared the roads of traffic and businesses boarded up their storefronts after the government issued dire warnings to inhabitants of flood-prone areas, and suspended government-run bus service in anticipation of the storm's arrival.

The storm is expected to produce rainfall of as much as 25 inches in part of Jamaica and could produce life-threatening mudslides, flash floods and tidal flooding like that seen in Haiti.

Cuba is also on track to be hit by the storm, especially the western side of the island, according to the most recent forecasts.

Forecasts have it reaching Grand Cayman Island as a hurricane before passing between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba's western tip, the center said.

The impact of the storm was worse coming just days after Tropical Storm Fay, which had lashed the Caribbean with severe winds and flooding.

Meanwhile, the southern US state of Louisiana also was battening down amid warnings that hurricane-scarred Gulf coast could be struck early next week by Gustav, the worst storm since Katrina leveled the region almost exactly three years ago.

News that Gustav could reach the Gulf of Mexico early next week worried oil industry analysts.

"Even if the damage from the approaching storm is fractional, it could still be significant," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an oil industry analyst at firm MF Global.

"Sparse capacity means that every barrel of oil lost to the marketplace will be felt, particularly as the northern hemisphere's winter is just around the corner," he said.

With memories of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 still fresh, US authorities prepared for the worse to avoid repeating the slow disaster response of three years ago.

Officials in the Gulf Coast states of Mississippi and Louisiana have declared emergencies in advance of the possible arrival of Gustav and were evacuating coastal areas

Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security urged Gulf Coast residents to get ready for the storm.

"Regardless of its predicted path, it is important for citizens in the Gulf Coast region to listen to what their local officials are advising over the course of the next few days and to take these simple steps to prepare," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

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