Washington/Mexico City  - At least 19 deaths in Haiti were blamed on the effects of Tropical Storm Hanna, while thousands of people in the Dominican Republic sought refuge Wednesday from the third storm in just weeks.

In Haiti, people climbed to the rooftops of their homes to remain safe in the face of flooding caused by Hanna. Ten people drowned in the central coastal city of Gonaives alone, said the news agency Haiti Press.

Haitian President Rene Preval requested international after the catastrophe in the city of 300,000 people.

In the Dominican Republic, schools remained closed, and the authorities of the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti declared the maximum alert for 13 provinces.

"The center of Hanna should be moving through or just east of the central and northwestern Bahamas over the next couple of days," the NHC said Wednesday.

The centre said Hanna has sustained winds of 95 kilometres per hour with higher gusts, but noted it could regain hurricane strength Thursday or Friday.

Meteorologists assume Hanna could reach the coast of the US states of Florida or South Carolina on Friday.

Just a few days earlier, Hurricane Gustav left at least 90 people dead in the Caribbean, and before that it was Tropical Storm Fay that claimed several lives.

Moreover, no significant improvement was in sight. On Wednesday, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said two further storms - Ike and Josephine - were headed for the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the city of New Orleans, in the US state of Louisiana, started the clean-up efforts following Gustav, which was blamed for 12 deaths in the US - including six critically-ill people who died during the evacuation efforts.

Some 1.9 million people who had fled the endangered areas on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend will not be able to return to their homes before early Thursday morning, officials have decided.

Insurance companies estimate that Gustav left some 10 billion dollars in damages, the news television channel CNN reported. Some 1.4 million homes were said to remain without electricity on Wednesday.

US President George W Bush was planning to travel to the affected area later Wednesday, although New Orleans continued to look like a ghost city following an almost complete evacuation.

A preliminary evaluation by the US National Guard estimated that Gustav caused only about a tenth of the damage caused around New Orleans by the deadly Hurricane Katrina almost exactly three years earlier. The recent storm damaged some 25,000 homes, while Katrina ruined more than 200,000 structures, according to these estimates. (dpa)