UPDATE: 12 people confirmed DEAD in St Lucia from Hurricane Thomas / Hurricane Tomas kills 2 in St. Lucia leaving a trail of devastation behind (PICS) / Hurricane Thomas leaves plenty damage in Barbados and St Lucia (Watch PICS) / Tropical Storm Tomas gathers strength, batters Barbados causing damage, now heading for St Lucia

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St. Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King told a local radio station that an unidentified American tourist drowned Saturday at Cas En Bas beach in the island's north and a 31-year-old St. Lucian woman also died in a road accident during the passage of Hurricane Tomas over the weekend.

High winds ripped the roofs off a hospital, a school and a stadium and toppled a large concrete cross from the roof of a century-old church, St Lucian government officials said. A landslide blocked a main highway linking the capital to the island's south.

The island was deluged by 21 hours of sustained rain starting Saturday morning. On Sunday, dead animals floated in swollen rivers and people in the capital of Castries took to streets to clear fallen branches, broken glass and other debris.

Authorities in neighbouring St. Vincent and the Grenadines also said two workers were hospitalised after they were blown off a roof by high winds.

St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said fierce winds tore roofs from scores of homes and more than 1,000 people sought emergency shelter as the islands plunged into darkness. Widespread flooding triggered landslides that cut off as many as 30 roads, marooning hundreds of residents.

"I have been told that over 300 houses have suffered some level of damage," Gonsalves said Sunday. "There is also serious damage to fruit trees, bananas and other infrastructure, and this is going to cost the state millions."

Meanwhile Hurricane Tomas weakened yesterday after ripping through the eastern Caribbean. Forecasters said the storm could regain force and veer toward earthquake-stunned Haiti, where some 1.3 million people living under tarps and in tents are vulnerable to heavy rains and wind.

With maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), Tomas was barely a hurricane. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted more weakening during the next 24 hours before it begins to strengthen again around midweek.

Daniel Brown, a center forecaster, said Tomas is "likely to strengthen when it's over the central Caribbean," and Haiti could be hit by rains from outer bands in another couple of days.

Late yesterday afternoon, Tomas' center was steaming west near 12 mph (19 kph). It was expected to continue on that track for the next two days, then gradually turn toward the north.

Brown said it's too early to say how strong Tomas could be later in the week or if Haiti might suffer a direct hit, but "there's certainly going to be the threat of heavy rainfall" in the impoverished nation, where widespread deforestation and ramshackle homes mean even moderate rains can cause devastation.

Aid workers in Haiti fear the worst. Hundreds of thousands of people there have only rudimentary shelter nearly 10 months after the Jan. 12 earthquake, and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 330 and hospitalised nearly 5,000.

At least 20,000 people were without power on Martinique, and streets flooded and tree branches were down. A cruise ship carrying nearly 2,000 tourists docked instead in Dominica.

Tomas also toppled power lines and damaged houses in Barbados as a tropical storm.

In Haiti, food and fuel were being stockpiled in southern areas expected to be most directly affected by Tomas, and emergency shelter materials were being distributed to the camps in Port-au-Prince.

Tomas is the 12th hurricane of the season in the Atlantic.

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Barbados is being battered by heavy rains and gusty winds associated with a strengthening Tropical Storm Tomas that the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said was near hurricane strength as it heads towards the northern Windward Islands. 

The Barbados government has ordered a nationwide shutdown of the island and the Director of the Department of Emergency Management Judy Thomas urged all citizens to remain indoors. She warned that weather conditions were expected to worsen. 

Earlier, the regional airline LIAT and American Airlines announced that they had cancelled flights into and out of the Grantley Adams International Airport on the island's southern tip. 

Radio reports said that several homes had already lost their roofs and many roads were impassible. 

There were downed trees across the island as the effects of the 19th storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which was located about 20 miles south of Barbados, were being felt. 

The NHC said that hurricane warnings have been issued for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and the French island of Martinique, while a tropical storm warning remains in effect for Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Dominica. 
According to the NHC, the center of Tropical Storm Tomas was located near latitude 12.9 north, longitude 59.5 west. It is moving towards the west-northwest near 15 miles per hour and this motion is expected to continue with a gradual decrease in forward speed tonight and Sunday. 

The NHC said that the center of Tomas will pass through the northern Windward Islands on Saturday and enter the Eastern Caribbean Sea by Saturday night. 

The maximum sustained winds have increased to near 70 miles per hour and the NHC said that strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours. 

The NHC said that tropical storm conditions are occurring on Barbados and will spread across the affected region with hurricane conditions expected later on Saturday morning. 

Tomas is expected to produce total accumulations of three to five inches with possible isolated amounts of eight inches across portions of the Windward Islands and Southern Leeward Islands, the NHC added