As Tropical Storm Fay began fading, Gustav, a new hurricane, hitHaiti and the Caribbean region with heavy rains.

Gustav was a tropical storm yesterday afternoon and strengthenedinto the season's third hurricane with sustained winds approaching90 mph, a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The stormis expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on some isolatedareas.

Gustav was expected to cross over the south of Cuba by Saturdayinto Sunday before heading into the Gulf of Mexico. Currentforecasts have the storm moving anywhere from Florida to Mexico'sYucatan Peninsula, gaining strength after passing Cuba.

Neena Saith, catastrophe response manager at Risk ManagementSolutions, noted that Gustav is expected to bring four-to-seveninches of rain to regions of Haiti already soaked by 15 inches ofrain from Tropical Storm Fay and to trigger more flashfloods andlandsides.

Conditions for Gustav to intensify and become a major hurricaneover the next five days are very good, said Steve E. Smith,president of Property Solutions, Carvill ReAdvisory. Given thestorm's forecast track, he said Gustav is a long-range threat tothe U.S. coast with potential for landfall sometime next weekanywhere along the Gulf Coast from Texas to the FloridaPanhandle.

Peter Dailey, director of atmospheric science for AIR Worldwide,said Gustav's rapid intensification has left little time forevacuation.

He compared Gustav to Hurricane Hazel in 1954 that hit Haitiwith winds of 100 mph, killing as many as 1,000 people and wipingout 50 percent of that nation's coffee and cocoa trees. That eventled to widespread deforestation that has continued unabated withincreasing threats of fatal mudslides and floods.

One major question, he noted, is to what extent Haiti'smountains will disrupt the system. However, Mr. Dailey noted thatthe National Hurricane Center's forecast calls for Gustav to becomea major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) by the time it reaches theGulf on Saturday or Sunday.

The eye of Hurricane Gustav made landfall on Haiti shortly after1 p.m., the National Weather Service said.

Fay, now a tropical depression, is moving slowly northeast intonorthern Alabama with rains felt as far north as North Carolina,west to Tennessee and south into the Florida Panhandle. Flash floodwarnings remained in effect as the storm was expected to weaken,but continue bringing heavy rains through the Appalachian Mountainsinto Pennsylvania. The storm is supplying much needed rain in partsof Georgia and Tennessee along with other parts of the region.Tornados remain a threat.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation sent out an updatedlist of the state's four largest insurers of personal linesinsurance, totaling more than 12,000 claims. State Farm's figuresremained unchanged from yesterday with 4,649 homeowners claims,1,021 auto claims and 571 National Flood Insurance Programclaims.

Homeowners claims for the state's residual insurer, CitizensProperty Insurance Corp., now stand at 2,436. Universal PropertyCasualty is at 1,204 homeowners claims.

Rounding out the figures, USAA homeowners claims stand at 1,722,auto at 230, and NFIP at 185.

Allstate–the state's second largest insurer, according toHighline Data, a Summit Business Media Company which also ownsNational Underwriter–has not publicly reported its claims, theregulator said. State Farm is the top carrier, according toHighline Data, which does not include Citizens in the figuresbecause it is a residual market insurer.

(This story was updated at 4:06 p.m.)