Workers remove a roof sign from Paradise Restaurant in George Town, Grand Cayman Island, on Thursday in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Gustav. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)After pummelling parts of Jamaica, where it killed four people, Gustav became a hurricane again Friday afternoon, churning its way toward the Cayman Islands as residents of Cuba hunkered down and U.S. Gulf Coast areas prepared to evacuate.

Gustav has reached hurricane status, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 120 kilometres an hour, the Cuban Institute of Meteorology and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in advisories released Friday afternoon.

The hurricane is expected to slam into Grand Cayman Island sometime late Friday, before continuing on a path toward Cuba.

Cuba issued a hurricane warning for its western provinces, including the capital, Havana. Gustav, which was already stirring up winds of up to 95 km/h on the island, is expected to strike there late Saturday.

Officials along the U.S. Gulf Coast began preparing as it appeared increasingly likely that the storm, which triggered floods and landslides that killed at least 71 people this week in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, would land there as a hurricane on the weekend.

Mississippi issued evacuation orders for the nearly 3,000 trailers and cottages built along the state's coast to house people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

New Orleans suggested a full-scale evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday and would include a curfew order allowing police to arrest anyone still on the streets.

As of 8 p.m. ET Friday, the storm had passed Jamaica and was 40 kilometres south of Little Cayman, moving northwest at 18 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

4 killed in Jamaica

Gustav ripped off roofs, downed power lines and pounded rain into Jamaica, triggering landslides and flooding and four deaths. Many people lost power and the streets of Kingston were deserted as heavy winds and rain lashed the capital.

"The people are not going out right now," Pete Sankey, news editor for the Jamaica Observer, told CBC News on Friday from the capital of Kingston. "It is raining across Jamaica and the wind is very heavy."

Hardest hit was the impoverished nation of Haiti, where at least 59 people died from floods, mudslides and falling trees, including 25 around the city of Jacmel, where Gustav first struck land Tuesday. Eight more people were buried when a cliff gave way in the Dominican Republic.

The hurricane is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday, the U.S. hurricane centre said. The area is home to a quarter of U.S. crude supplies and 40 per cent of its refining capacity. Oil prices rose above $117 US a barrel on Friday before slipping back to settle at $115.46.

Gustav could grow to a Category 3 storm, with winds above 180 km/h, by the time it hits the U.S. Gulf Coast next week, the hurricane centre said. Gustav could strike anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas, but forecasters said there's an increasing chance that New Orleans will get slammed by at least tropical-storm-force winds.

Friday marked the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. New Orleans was devastated by the 2005 storm, which flooded more than 80 per cent of the city and was blamed for the deaths of nearly 1,500 people.

With files from the Associated Press