Tropical Storm Noel heads to Florida

The storm, which killed at least 29 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti after sending floods surging through streets and hillsides and trees crashing down on houses, was located around 105 kilometres north-north-west of the Cuban city of Camaguey by 8:00am (local time), US forecasters said.

Noel was moving to the north-north-west at around 9 km per hour with 65 km per hour winds, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

"A turn toward the north is expected later today. The centre of Noel is expected to emerge off the north coast of Cuba during the next few hours and reach the north-western Bahamas tonight," the Miami-based centre said.

The storm began drenching the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti over the weekend and left thousands of people without power and swathes of the two countries awash in muddy water.

At least 18 people died in Haiti, an impoverished country which has lost most of its forests to environmental degradation.

Two people were still missing, said Civil Protection Office director Alta Jean-Baptiste.

"Up to now, we have counted 18 bodies, but the death toll could be more significant," he said.

About 3,400 people were staying in emergency shelters set up by the Haitian Government and around 400 houses had been destroyed.

In the Dominican Republic, 11 people were confirmed dead and 13 were missing but there were unconfirmed reports of at least 25 dead.

Cuba, which has an effective civil protection system in place, reported no deaths.

But reservoirs overflowed in already rain-drenched parts of eastern Cuba and thousands of people were evacuated from vulnerable areas.

Torrential rain was also already falling over parts of the Bahamas.

The 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic storm season was not expected to strengthen significantly on its way toward south-east Florida.

Computer models indicated it was likely to be caught up in strong westerlies before it reached Florida and to be taken increasingly rapidly north-eastward over the Bahamas. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation