HAVANA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Cyclone "Gustav," causing on Tuesday heavy rains in Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba, has aroused the affected countries' alert for a possible hurricane in the region.

    The Dominican government has declared a state of emergency in four provinces: San Juan de la Maguana, San Jose de Ocoa, Azua and National District, and has made decisions on supplies for the affected people.

    Cuba on Tuesday issued an alert in preparation for evacuating the risk zones in its eastern provinces.

    Gustav is expected to reach Haiti on Tuesday with winds of about 120km per hour. It represents an even bigger danger for Haiti since deforestation had already caused some landslides in the country during the cyclone seasons.

    The center of the hurricane was only 80km south from Port au Prince, Haiti, and 390km southeast of Guantanamo, southeast of Cuba, according to a meteorological report.

    "In the early morning on Tuesday, Gustav intensified and now its maximum sustained winds are of 140km per hour, with superior gusts," said the Meteorological Institute of Cuba.

    Gustav is measured as a hurricane of category one on the Saffir-Simpson scale. But its winds could intensify and reach category two (winds over 154km per hour) before reaching land in Haiti.

    Seven tropical storms have formed in the Atlantic Ocean during the current hurricane season (from June 1 to Nov. 30), including Gustav, and three of them have turned into hurricanes.