Information gathered by the crew of a US hurricane hunter aircraft showed that Dennis packed maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour with higher gusts late Wednesday.

At 2200 GMT the storm was located 505 kilometers (315 miles) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 540 kilometers (335) south-southeast of Guantanamo Cuba, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

Dennis was likely to be centered near Jamaica early Thursday, according to the NHC, which warned that the hurricane could also pummel parts of Haiti, Cuba and the Cayman Islands, and said the storm would likely strengthen.

By the weekend, Dennis could be entering the Gulf of Mexico, where several oil platforms already had been evacuated ahead of Tropical Storm Cindy.

Cindy was downgraded to a tropical depression after making landfall early Wednesday, flooding streets, causing minor damage and cutting power to about a quarter of a million people, many of them in New Orleans.

The severe weather systems caused concern on oil markets, with the price of crude surging almost 1.70 dollars to 61.28 dollars a barrel in New York at close of business Wednesday.

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