US keeps eye on two new storms after Gustav


MIAMI - The United States kept a close eye Monday on another hurricane and a new tropical storm that emerged in the Atlantic, threatening the country after Hurricane Gustav slammed the US Gulf Coast.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said preparations were already underway as Hanna lashed the Turks and Caicos Islands, with a forecast that it would head toward US East Coast.

Tropical Storm Ike, meanwhile, formed further east in the Atlantic.

"It's a little early to tell where Ike is going to go, but we clearly have to be getting ready for Hanna and we're working with the states in the potential target area to make sure they're getting ready to do what they have to do," Chertoff told CNN.

Hanna was a Category One storm -- the weakest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale -- blowing winds of 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

The hurricane was nearly stationary just northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the centre said in its latest advisory.

Hanna was expected to produce four to eight inches of rain over the central and southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, with isolated maximums of 12 inches, it said.

Up to eight inches of rain could also fall over the mountainous terrain of eastern Cuba and Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where the downpour could trigger mudslides and flash floods.

At least 77 people died in Haiti after the impoverished country was struck by Gustav, which blasted Louisiana with powerful winds and rain as a Category Two hurricane on Monday.

Ike, the ninth tropical storm of the 2008 hurricane season, was further out to sea, 2,250 kilometres (1,400 miles) east of the Leeward Islands, packing winds of near 85 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, the hurricane centre said.

The storm could become a hurricane on Tuesday or Wednesday, it said.