The latest hurricane to threaten the Caribbean has shifted course and is veering towards Trinidad and Tobago, says the US National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Ivan's winds have reached 115 mph (185km/h) and it has been upgraded to category three, officials say.A hurricane warning is in force on both islands. Schools have been closed and residents are urged to remain indoors.
Tobago has not been seriously hit by a hurricane since 1963 and Trinidad has never experienced a major hurricane.
At the same time, Barbados looked set to escape the full impact, as the government in Bridgetown downgraded its hurricane warning to a tropical storm warning.
Hurricane warnings remain in effect for St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, while Martinique and St Lucia are under a tropical storm warning.
The Netherlands Antilles government has now issued a hurricane watch for the islands of Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba.
Shelters opened
At 1500 GMT on Tuesday, Ivan was 45 miles (75km) northeast of Tobago, the US National Hurricane Center said.
A warning issued by the centre said the hurricane was moving west and was expected to continue in that direction over the eastern Caribbean sea on Tuesday.
The centre said rainfall of 5 to 7in (12.5 to 17.5cm), possibly causing flash floods and mudslides, could be expected as the hurricane passed through the Windward Islands.
In Trinidad and Tobago, a senior official of the National Emergency Management Agency, Allan Stewart, told local television on Tuesday morning that at least nine hurricane shelters had been opened in Tobago and people were flocking to them.
He said trees had already been uprooted by the early winds and electricity had been cut off in some areas of Tobago.
The warnings came as Hurricane Frances threatened the US mainland once again.
The storm was blamed for at least nine deaths and the loss of power for six million people when it hit on Sunday.
It returned, into the Florida Panhandle in the north of the state, on Monday, before travelling north into Georgia.
Officials in Georgia said an 18-year-old woman died on Monday after the car she was travelling in hydroplaned and overturned during the storm.
Almost three million people in Florida left their homes to avoid Hurricane Frances, which lashed the Bahamas last week, causing two deaths there.
