Two storms squeeze Florida; Lili poses new threat Though intensity is hard to predict, Louisiana and Hispaniola prepare for the worst: MIAMI - Developing hurricanes approached Florida from two directions Tuesday as Isidore swept toward the northern Gulf Coast and Lili advanced through the Caribbean on a course that could prove worrisome to South Floridians.

Forecasters said Isidore's core was likely to strike south of New Orleans as a tropical storm late Wednesday or early Thursday, although as of 10 p.m., the storm's eye had not recovered from hitting the Yucatan. But the storm was much larger than its core - blanketing the Gulf of Mexico - and wind and rain was already pressure-washing the coast from Texas to Tampa. At the same time, South Floridians glanced at satellite images of the Caribbean and didn't like what they saw: Tropical Storm Lili, still 1,200 miles away and heading generally toward the region. The path projected for Lili ran through southwestern Haiti and eastern Cuba and toward the Bahamas. Forecasters said Lili should veer out to sea before it reaches South Florida, but the region could endure a close call this weekend. "Lili's track is still directed toward our general area," said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County. "We're on the edge of the risk area now." In any case, forecasters said, South Florida's weather should improve during the next few days as Isidore moves north through the Gulf. After that, it all depends on Lili. Too soon to predict path Forecasters said the storm could get knocked around - and weakened - by encounters with the mountains of Haiti and eastern Cuba, or it could be nudged away by atmospheric forces, or it could reach South Florida. It was just too soon to say. But experts knew this: Every tropical system is dangerous and must be respected. As a tropical storm, Lili killed a woman and three of her children Tuesday in a mudslide on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. Hundreds of homes were damaged in St. Vincent, Barbados and St. Lucia. "We're going to watch it very, very carefully," Gov. Jeb Bush said during a visit to St. Petersburg, Fla. "South Florida needs to begin to do the preliminary work and preparations now." He and other state officials could not recall a time when two developing hurricanes simultaneously posed threats to Florida. "Successive storms are not unusual," Bush said, "but successive storms with the possibility of hitting one side of the state and impacting another side of the state at one time is new." Threat to Guantanamo Bay Lili appeared to be heading straight for the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, home to 5,000 U.S. sailors, soldiers, contractors and their families - and 598 suspected terrorists penned up in steel and metal mesh cells on a seaside strip called Camp Delta. American officers said they had a plan to assure the prisoners' safety, but they refused to disclose it. In Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, dark clouds rolled in, light rain began falling and moderate winds arrived. Lili also was expected to exacerbate the nation's frequent power blackouts. President Hipolito Mejia and forecasters told residents to prepare for a fast-moving but potentially dangerous storm. "They should take all precautions necessary because this storm will reach us first thing Wednesday," said meteorologist Ramona Ojando, "and by then it may not be a storm but a hurricane." Message received, said Geraldo Francisco, 36, a Santo Domingo computer engineer who watched waves crash against rocks on the southern coast. "They can be very destructive," Francisco said of such storms. "I do plan to monitor it to see how it goes." The other system that required monitoring, Isidore, was much weaker than when it struck Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula earlier in the week, killing two people and leaving 300,000 homeless. New Orleans 'panic button' But it still remained capable of causing death, injury and destruction. Storm warnings with various levels of urgency stretched from High Island in Galveston County to Destin in North Florida, a distance of 480 miles. Tropical storm winds - higher than 39 mph - extended 200 miles from Isidore's center. Forecasters issued small craft advisories and warned that seas could rise 10 feet above normal. In New Orleans, clouds swallowed the tops of the tallest buildings. Rain fell, first straight down, then horizontal. Small puddles, the start of what some feared could be local floods, formed along side streets. Much of Louisiana is particularly vulnerable to flooding because the terrain is low, so officials closed many schools through Friday. Evacuations and other preparations that began several days ago accelerated after forecasters announced that Isidore was resuming its push toward the state. "They pushed that panic button this morning," said Patrick Lee, assistant manager of a grocery store near the shores of Lake Pontchatrain. Shoppers already had picked the place clean of cereal, breakfast foods and snack bars.