Gustav pounds Jamaica, as death toll rises

Forecasters said Gustav might slip between Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the western tip of Cuba on Sunday, then March toward a Tuesday collision with the U.S. Gulf Coast — anywhere from south Texas to the Florida panhandle.

"We know it's going to head into the Gulf. After that, we're not sure," said meteorologist Rebecca Waddington at the National Hurricane Center. "For that reason, everyone in the Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm."

Any damage to the Gulf oil infrastructure could send U.S. gasoline prices spiking.

"A bad storm churning in the Gulf could be a nightmare scenario," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "We might see oil prices spike $5 to $8 if it really rips into platforms."

Gustav is particularly worrisome because there are few surrounding wind currents capable of shearing off the top of the storm and diminishing its power, the hurricane center said. "Combined with the deep warm waters, rapid intensification could occur in a couple of days."

Mom, six children killed
Gustav's death toll included a mother and six of her seven children in the Dominican Republic.

The mother's screams and the roar of falling earth jolted a Santo Domingo shantytown from its sleep Tuesday. Marcelina Feliz and six of her children — ranging in age from 11 months to 15 years — were killed when a landslide crushed their tin-roofed house.

Feliz was found hugging the body of her smallest child, rescue officials said. A neighbor was also killed.

"I don't know how I can live now, because none of my family is left," said Marino Borges, Feliz's husband and father of several of her children.

He was away at work when the cliff fell in Guachupita, an impoverished neighborhood just north of Santo Domingo. The family had just returned from a shelter where they took refuge from Tropical Storm Fay this month, authorities said.

When rescuers dug through the dirt, they found the body of the 32-year-old mother still holding her dead baby. The family had been unable to escape their home because a locked security gate blocked the front door, Listin Diario, a local daily, reported Thursday.

Hours after Wednesday's pre-dawn landslide, the victims were laid to rest. The local funeral home's only small casket went to the baby. Some of the children seemed tiny inside caskets meant for older people.

Relatives and friends piled into motorcycles and crammed into buses to attend the burial, which was held so hastily that additional workers and shovels were called in to dig bigger holes to make the coffins fit.

Some residents demanded Thursday that the government build sturdier new homes in Guachupita.

"This here is going to crumble completely," said Thelma Acosta Feliz. "I don't know want to build here again."

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