The Miami-based US National Hurricane Center warned Sunday that Fay, already packing winds of up to 85 kilometers (50 miles) an hour, could evolve into a hurricane in the coming hours and dump several inches of rain over Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands before lashing Florida on Monday.

It forecast Fay could soon be packing hurricane-strength winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour, and placed a hurricane warning on parts of Cuba, islands off the southern tip of Florida and halfway up Florida's west coast.

"Fay could be approaching hurricane strength when it reaches western Cuban tonight and when it approaches the Florida Keys Monday," the advisory said.

At 2100 GMT the storm's center was located 335 kilometers (205 miles) southeast of Havana and 435 kilometers (270 miles) southeast of Key West, Florida. It was moving west-northwest at 24 kilometers (15 miles) per hour.

Authorities in the popular tourist spot of the Florida Keys archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands, have ordered all visitors to evacuate and told residents to secure their homes and property, including boats.

Residents in mobile homes and those living on boats were also told to evacuate.

The main highway linking the Keys to the mainland was choked with traffic as visitors rushed to leave, Monroe County Sheriff's office spokeswoman Becky Herrin told AFP.

"There's no order for residents to evacuate the area, we have to wait and see the situation before taking more measures," she added.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency in the area.

Shelters were to open later Sunday and all schools in the Monroe County area, which includes Key West, lying just 150 kilometers (95 miles) from Cuba, were to be closed on Monday and Tuesday.

In mainland Miami meanwhile, residents began descending on gas stations and supermarkets to fill up gas tanks and stock up on bottled water and food supplies.

Cuban authorities said Sunday that more than 10,000 people living in the path of the storm had been evacuated, as heavy wind and rain began battering the eastern coast.

"The eye of the storm will make landfall somewhere between Matanzas and Cienfuegos," said Meteorological Institute Forecast Center director Jose Rubiera.

Rubiera, the director of Cuba's weather center, warned of the danger of "tidal waves" with probability of flooding in the eastern provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.

"The most important thing for our country continues to be the rains brought by the tropical storm," the center said, as its warnings interrupted the normal television and radio broadcasts.

All Cuban domestic flights have been suspended, and civil defense authorities were closely monitoring the levels of rivers and dams amid fears of severe flooding.

After crossing Cuba, Fay is expected to dump as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in areas of Florida.

The storm, the sixth of the Atlantic hurricane season, has already brought misery to other islands. Authorities in the Dominican Republic said four people had died in the storm, including two young brothers swept away when the river Higuey broke its banks.

Some 11,760 people were evacuated, and power was cut to some 15,000 homes, local media said. Five bridges were also damaged and several roadways snapped.

In Haiti, the heavy rains killed one person in the north and another was missing in the south, civil protection officials told AFP.

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