Gustav Deluges Caribbean, Oil Market Next?

Haiti, already suffering the tortures of the damned, watched precious crops go under the stalled onslaught of water from Hurricane Gustav. A trash filled Port-au-Prince and other populated areas are starting to see floods and no emergency assistance in sight. During the deluge, outbreaks of food price protests are still rocking the capital - literally! The Haitian people are throwing rocks in Les Cayes wearing plastic bags as raincoats. Havana, Cuba is watching it streets and beaches become at one with the water as rainfall will be somewhere between 6 to 12 inches just two weeks after Fay. The Dominican Republic sees mudslides turning tragic with a mounting death toll.

Gustav was moving slowly, an ominous development for Haiti where hillsides have been stripped of trees and heavy rains frequently cause disastrous mudslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

At least two people were killed on Tuesday in a mudslide in Haiti.
In the neighboring Dominican Republic, eight people -- seven from the same family -- were buried under mud when a hillside collapsed just north of Santo Domingo.

Havana, Cuba 26 August, 2008 (Photos Reuters)

Gustav was rated a tropical storm, but could return to Hurricane status at any time once out over the warm waters of the Gulf Of Mexico. Jamaica issued tropical storm warnings along with all of the Cayman Islands. Haitians are being told to prepare evacuate. Floridians are not taking anything for granted anymore when former hurricane, Tropical Storm Fay made a record breaking 4 landfalls just sitting there dispensing rain and misery on each visit. Eastern Cubans are being warned that Gustav is packing a more powerful punch than Fay.

There's nothing but cash induced adrenalin in the hearts of oil speculators as the price of oil wobbles with the Gulf filled with oil rigs and the potential for disaster to oil supplies making the prices jump like a wet cat.

Concerns that Hurricane Gustav would strike installations in the Gulf of Mexico in coming days sent energy prices higher. Crude futures climbed $1.16 to $116.27.

Gustav is "still a long way from oil and gas infrastructure, but gas traders will be keenly focused on direction/magnitude of this summer's first storm to potentially impact energy markets," securities firm Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. told its clients Tuesday morning.

All around the Gulf coast people are eying reports with trepidation as Gustav is expected to regain Hurricane strength. The map lines represent Gustav's possibilities with Florida heaving up prayers of relief.

It is already a deadly and active hurricane season as we come up on the anniversary of America's most devastating hurricane to human and national reputation alike, Katrina, on 29 August. New Orleans sits well within the possibilities as Gustav slowly moves back out to sea where refueling could supersize the storm into a monster hurricane.