Tropical Storm Isaac, 24 August 2012
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are braced for a battering as Tropical Storm Isaac approaches Hispaniola, the island shared by the two countries.
Some 400,000 Haitians still living in makeshift camps after a deadly earthquake in 2010 are "amongst the most vulnerable", aid groups warn.
Isaac, which is expected to hit the island on Friday evening, has strenghtened in the past few hours.
It will move on to Cuba and the south of the United States by the weekend.
The storm could pose a potential threat to Florida during the US Republican National Convention.
Disease warning
At 18:00 GMT, Isaac - with maximum sustained winds of 100km/h (65mph) - was about 160km (100 miles) south-east of the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, and 480km (300 miles) away from Guantanamo, in Cuba, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said.
The storm could unleash up to 20 inches (51cm) of rain on the island.
Isaac is no longer expected to become a hurricane as it hits the island of Hispaniola, but the near-hurricane strength winds and rain have the potential to cause great destruction, especially in Haiti.
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the NHC warned.
In Haiti, people living in the makeshift squatter camps were "amongst the more vulnerable, should the storm hit the city", humanitarian group World Vision said.
"Without a stable sanitation system or permanent housing, heavy rain and wind can create much larger problems like disease from water contamination," the group's Haiti director Jean-Claude Mukadi was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
Isaac is also expected to bring rain and wind to nearby Puerto Rico.
Several Cuban provinces are now on a state of alert, as well as parts of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands.
- BBC
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