World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

People run over a bridge covered by debris as waves hit the seawall, caused by Tropical Storm Isaac in Barahona, Dominican Republic, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

Tropical Storm Isaac swept across Haiti's southern peninsula early Saturday, bringing flooding and at least three deaths while adding to the misery of a poor nation still trying to recover from the terrible 2010 earthquake.

The storm was heading toward eastern Cuba and forecasters said it poses a threat to Florida Monday and Tuesday, just as the Republican Party gathers for its national convention in Tampa.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane warning is in effect for the Florida Keys and for the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach south to Florida Bay.

At least three people were reported dead. A woman and a child died in the town of Souvenance, Sen. Francisco Delacruz told a local radio station. A 10-year-old girl died in Thomazeau when a wall fell on his, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's Civil Protection Office. She said as many as 5,000 people were evacuated because of flooding.

Many, however, stayed and suffered.

In the shantytown of Cite Soleil, just north of Port-au-Prince, about 300 homes had either their roofs blown off or sitting in three feet (one meter) of water, according to Rachel Brumbaugh, operation manager for the U.S. non-profit group World Vision.

"From last night, we're in misery," said Cite Soleil resident Jean-Gymar Joseph. "All our children are sleeping in the mud, in the rain."

More than 50 tents in a quake settlement collapsed, forcing people to scramble through the mud to try to save their belongings.

Forecasters said Isaac could dump as much as 30 centimetres and even up to 51 centimetres on Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as produce a storm surge of up to 0.9 metres.

Isaac was centred about 150 kilometres east-southeast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, early Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph. It was moving northwest at 22 kph. Tropical force winds extended nearly 321 kilometres from the storm's centre.

Forecasters said the storm was likely to march up the Gulf of Mexico, offshore of Florida's west coast, as a hurricane on Monday, just as the Republican National Convention is scheduled to start. Tampa was within the storm's possible strike zone, but the most likely course would carry it toward landfall on the Florida Panhandle late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Cuba declared a state of alert Friday for six eastern provinces and five central provinces were put on preliminary watch. Vacationers in tourist installations of those regions were evacuated.

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Associated Press writers Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana, APTN journalist Fernando Gonzalez in Santiago, Cuba; and Ezequiel Abiu Lopez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed to this report.