Ernesto douses eastern Cuba en route to Florida

HAVANA - Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched eastern Cuba on Monday and headed for the Florida Straits, where it could regain hurricane strength and hit Florida's most populous region.

Ernesto, which briefly became the Atlantic season's first hurricane on Sunday, killed two people in impoverished Haiti.

It then faded to a mass of showers and thunderstorms with 64km/h winds as it moved over Cuba, dumping up to 18cm of rain and filling reservoirs to the brim, but packing few gusts.

Forecasters said it would likely gather force from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and be just below hurricane strength by the time it neared the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, home to about 5 million people.

"The intensity forecast is for Ernesto to be very near hurricane strength at landfall," on Tuesday or early Wednesday, said Florida meteorologist Ben Nelson.

Battered by eight hurricanes in two years, Florida prepared for a pounding one year after Hurricane Katrina smacked the state on its way to the US Gulf coast, where it swamped New Orleans, killed 1500 people and caused US$80 billion in damage.

Hour-long lines formed at gas stations and people shopped for plywood, batteries and water across a region where Hurricane Wilma knocked out power to millions and caused US$12 billion ($19.05 billion) in damage just 10 months ago.

"Just prepare. It's not fun and games," Mike Puto, city manager of Marathon in the Florida Keys, told residents.

Nasa called off the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Cape Canaveral this week and said the spacecraft would likely be taken off the launchpad and rolled into a hangar to keep it safe.

The storm made landfall in Cuba earlier on Monday near Guantanamo Bay, site of a US naval base where several hundred suspected al Qaeda and Taleban militants are held.

"Ernesto is but a shadow of its former self," Cuban weather forecaster Jose Rubiera said shortly before Cuba lifted a hurricane warning in the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago and Granma. Evacuees from those areas were being returned home.

Cuba had evacuated more than 600,000 people, many in buses and trucks. Cattle and crops were protected and domestic flights to eastern Cuba suspended.

Ernesto's centre was close to the north coast of Cuba and 100km east of the city of Camaguey at 5pm EDT (0900NZT), moving northwest at 20km, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

The storm's centre should emerge into the Florida Straits on Monday night, the Miami-based centre said.

National Hurricane Centre director Max Mayfield warned Floridians not to take the storm lightly even if it doesn't reach hurricane force again.

"It's a little academic whether you have 113km/h, that's what we're forecasting, when you have a tropical storm, or 120km/h and you have a hurricane," he said. "And let's not forget Katrina last year."

Katrina caused US$572 million in insured damage when it crossed Florida as a Category 1 storm, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Ernesto provided a sharp reminder to residents of vulnerable US coastal areas that the peak of the hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, was upon them.

Florida's government declared a state of emergency and television stations cranked up coverage with reminders to fill bathtubs with water and to put up hurricane shutters.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush reassured residents there would be no fuel shortages and urged them not to overreact by rushing to the pumps.

Tourists were ordered out of the Florida Keys and schools and courts were closed in the low-lying, 177-km island chain off Florida's southern tip.

Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm after pounding Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. It killed at least two people, one of them near Gonaives, a port city where tropical storm flooding killed 3000 people two years ago.

Oil prices fell over US$2 on Monday after Ernesto seemed less likely to threaten oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, where a quarter of US oil and gas is pumped.

- REUTERS