Haitian authorities warned its people of possible evacuations as another tropical storm Gustav developed in the Caribbeans and threatened to blow up into a full fledged hurricane before moving to Cuba, the Bahamas and then Florida.

On Monday evening, the eye of Gustav was centered 180 miles southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince and looked ready to develop into a hurricane on its northwesterly course. The US National Hurricane Center at Miami said that wind speeds had already reached 60 mph and would pass over Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.

Tourism is the main industry of many Caribbean economies and in expectation of the approaching tropical storm, several cruise lines have put their operations on alert. Carnival Cruise, one of the biggest lines of the region, diverted one of its ships from Montego Bay, Jamaica to a Mexican port in order to avoid the storm. Maritime activities in Haiti have been suspended and the agricultural ministry asked farmers to remove their livestock to safe locations.

The possibility of tropical storm Gustav developing into a hurricane brings further bad news for US coastal states like Florida which bore the brunt of tropical storm Fay last week and where residents are still mopping up flood waters