Powerful Hurricane Ike is rolling down an uncertain path that may lead to the US Gulf Coast later this week, forcing emergency officials to pay attention and leaving millions of people from Florida to Mexico wondering where it will eventually strike.
Officials in the Florida Keys planned to start a phased evacuation for residents early today Canberra time, after telling visitors a day earlier to get out.
Ike, a dangerous Category4 storm on a potential track for oil rigs in the central Gulf, was forecast to affect the Keys early tomorrow.
Ike roared across the low-lying Turks and Caicos island chain yesterday as people in the British territory sought refuge in emergency shelters or in their homes.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Ike's eye was moving west on a path that would take it near or over eastern and central Cuba early today.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist met mayors and emergency officials on Saturday.
''These storms have a mind of their own,'' he said.
''There are no rules, so what we have to do is be prepared, be smart, vigilant and alert.''
In Haiti, authorities tried to move thousands of people into shelters ahead of Ike while still struggling to recover from Tropical Storm Hanna.
Rescue workers feared Hanna's death toll could rise in the flooded city of Gonaives if Ike dumped more rain.
In Louisiana, still recovering from last week's Hurricane Gustav, Governor Bobby Jindal set up a taskforce to prepare for the possibility of more havoc.
''We're not hoping for another strike, another storm, but we're ready,'' he said.
Even as Gustav evacuees headed home, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said officials were anxiously monitoring Ike on a projected path towards the Gulf.
''Our citizens are weary and they're tired and they have spent a lot of money evacuating ... from Gustav,'' he said.
He said it would be ''very difficult to move the kind of numbers out of this city that we moved during Gustav'', if Ike were to threaten.
The storm sustained winds of nearly 217km/h and even stronger gusts after muscling up from a Category3 to a Category4 storm on Saturday. It was moving nearly due west at about 24km/h and was expected to turn slightly towards the north-west today.
Hurricane centre meteorologist Colin McAdie said, ''It's a very dangerous storm. There's going to be some ups and downs, but we expect it to remain a major hurricane over the next couple days.''
The hurricane centre said Ike was generating large swells at sea that could generate life-threatening rip currents along portions of coast in the south-eastern United States.
Tourists were urged to leave the Bahamas and authorities in the Dominican Republic began evacuating dozens of families from river banks that could flood because of two already overfilled dams. AP