A bridge collapsed in southeastern Haiti under a river swollen from fierce winds and rains, killing at least four people Thursday as Hurricane Dennis lashed Caribbean coastlines.
The hurricane's winds whipped up to 140 mph and threatened to intensify as it makes a beeline for Cuba and then landfall in the Gulf of Mexico projected Sunday or Monday, raising fears oil supplies will be disrupted by the fourth storm in as many weeks.
An Associated Press Television News reporter saw at least four people killed when the wooden and metal bridge collapsed in the southwestern Haitian town of Grand Goave. Witnesses said the river came suddenly rushing over the bridge. At least three vehicles were swept away.
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Elsewhere in dangerously deforested Haiti, wind gusts uprooted a palm tree and flung it into a mud hut, killing one person and injuring three in southern Les Cayes town, the Red Cross said.
Dennis should pass over central Cuba within 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Several rivers burst their banks in eastern Jamaica, flooding several roads and stranding many residents in their homes, said Morant Bay mayor Joan Spencer. The main road linking the eastern part of the island with the capital of Kingston was flooded, preventing rescue workers from getting to the area, she told local RJR radio.
"We are in a terrible situation right now," Spencer said.
About 10 percent of Jamaica's population was left without electricity, the Jamaica Power and Services Company told RJR.
Click for related content Track the course and projected path of Dennis
In communist-run Cuba, where the military-style government has been praised by the United Nations for its extensive hurricane preparedness plans, more than 100,000 people had been evacuated in the island's southeast, civil defense officials said on state television.
The Cayman Islands and Cuba were under hurricane warnings, including the U.S. detention camp holding some 520 terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay.
In Jamaica, Prime Minister Percival Patterson urged people in low-lying areas to evacuate.
"Let us all work together in unity so that we will be spared the worst," he said in a national radio broadcast.
But only about 1,000 of the 2.6 million people were in shelters by late afternoon, when local forecasters said the eye of the storm was passing 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Port Antonio, on Jamaica's northeast coast. Jamaica closed its airports, and Air Jamaica halted all flights.
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Florida braces for the arrival of  as governor  announced a  on a televised press conference Friday afternoon at 2:00 .  Dennis weakened slightly after making landfall in Cuba and now packs sustained winds of 145 . Thousands have fled the  under a mandatory evacuation order where the storm is expected to strike sometime this evening.

The storm wobbled slightly after arriving in Cuba where it claimed up to three lives.  operators reported that most power lines are down in the province of , where a major seaport is located on Cuba's southern coast. 

According to '''', 18 lives were claimed by the storm in Haiti yesterday when it passed over that island nation.

Storm trackSource:National Hurricane Center

The storm is expected to continue on a north-westerly path that will brush the southern tip of Florida and head up the state's Gulf of Mexico coastline, where warm gulf waters could fuel the storm and raise it to a Category 5 storm.

Speculation has begun on the possibility of higher gas prices as gulf oil refineries are threatened.

Hurricane Dennis comes quickly on the heels of 3-day ago , in what is noted as record storm activity for this early in the hurricane season.