Claims News Service, Aug. 28, 3:35 p.m. EST — The Gulf Coast isbracing itself for yet another hurricane.

According to a Guy Carpenter report, Tropical Storm Gustav islocated approximately 80 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica andapproximately 170 miles south of Guantanamo, Cuba and packssustained winds of around 50 mph, according to the NationalHurricane Center (NHC).

According to the NHC, Gustav is currently moving towards thesouthwest at around 8 mph with tropical storm force winds extending50 miles from the center of the storm. It is forecast that Gustavwill turn towards the west later today, taking the center of thestorm very close to the north coast of Jamaica, and to thewest-northwest on Friday, taking a path towards the northwesternprovince of Granma on Cuba. The NHC says that Gustav is forecast tostrengthen over the next 48 hours, with the potential to regainhurricane strength by Friday.

The NHC stated that as of 5 a.m. EST on Aug. 28, a tropicalstorm warning remains in effect for the

Cuban province of Granma and a hurricane watch and tropicalstorm warning is in place for Jamaica.

A hurricane watch remains in effect for all of the CaymanIslands. Gustav is expected to produce around 2 – 4 inches ofrainfall over southern Cuba with around 6 – 12 inches expected overHaiti, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, with the possibility ofcausing life-threatening flash floods and mud-slides in someareas.

“Gustav looks set to make landfall early next week as itcontinues to intensify along its path. Forecasts suggest that itwill strike on the U.S. Gulf coast on Tuesday morning, potentiallyas a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. However, the landfall timing alldepends on the location, with a hit to the east likely to occurearlier than one to the west. The intensity will also be driven bythe location and timing, and at this point is even more uncertain,”said Neena Saith, catastrophe response manager at Risk ManagementSolutions

“Gustav is expected to still be a Category 1 hurricane as itpasses along the south coast of Jamaica and the south of GrandCayman – unlike Ivan in 2004 which was a Category 4 when it took avery similar path and caused substantial damage to these islandsfrom wind and storm surge. As it passes along its track Gustav willexperience the optimal conditions for intensification foundanywhere in the Atlantic basin at this time, with weak wind shearand the warmest sea surface temperatures,” Saith continued.

Recent reports said that at least 23 people were killed in theCaribbean, after Gustav made landfall over Haiti as a Category 1hurricane on Aug. 26, causing landslides and extensive floodingboth in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic. According toreports, U.N. peacekeepers said that they have evacuated thousandsof Haitians by boat and truck in areas affected in the continuingaftermath of the storm.

Present forecasts indicate that Gustav could enter the Gulf ofMexico as a Category 2 hurricane early morning on Aug. 31, with thepotential for intensification into a Category 3 hurricane by earlymorning on Sept. 1 as Gustav approaches the US Gulf Coast.

Whilst forecasters stress that at this time, Gustav's eventualpoint of US landfall could be anywhere from the Florida panhandleto Texas, Gustav's present track is forecast as heading directlytowards New Orleans. On Wednesday, the Governor of Louisiana, BobbyJindal, put residents in New Orleans on alert and declared anemergency for the state, making Louisiana eligible to receivefederal disaster assistance. Jindal added that 3,000 National Guardmembers were being deployed to vulnerable areas in the state duringThursday to assist with the provision of emergency shelters and inpreparing for possible evacuations. Other officials in Louisianahave voiced concern over the condition of flood levees that havebeen recently rebuilt by the US Army Corps of Engineers, after thebreaches that were caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

For more information, check out Guy Carpenter's HYPERLINK“http://www.guycarp.com/portalapp/publicsite/catdocument.pdf?instratreportid=1728″Instrat Report.

Interested in more catastrophe news and in-depth articles? Headover to Claims' catastrophe channel for more information.