PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Tropical Storm Noel lashed Haiti with heavy rains early Monday as it slowly neared the impoverished Caribbean nation, generating fears of flash flooding on deforested hills often blanketed by rows of flimsy shacks.

The strengthening Caribbean storm, which formed into a tropical storm Sunday, poses a serious threat to Haiti, where floods killed at least 37 earlier this month.

At 2 a.m. EDT, Noel‘s center was roughly 90 miles south of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, forecasters said.

Forecasters said Noel, with tropical storm force winds fanning 115 miles from its center, could drop 12 inches of water on Hispaniola, southeastern Cuba and Jamaica.

Swollen rivers also forced evacuations in Cabaret, a town north of Port-au-Prince where floods killed at least 23 people earlier this month, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti‘s civil protection agency.

A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch were issued for southeastern parts of Cuba, including the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay where the U.S. military holds some 330 detainees on suspicion of links to terrorism.

Flood concerns on Saturday forced three U.S. senators to cut short a trip to Haiti, where they‘d planned to survey damage caused by earlier storms.

Widespread deforestation and poor drainage mean that even moderate rains can cause devastation in Haiti, where thousands of people build ramshackle homes in flood plains.