The US-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) warned on Saturday that hurricane Paloma , which is heading towards Cuba after lashing Grand Cayman with heavy rain and high winds, has become "an extremely dangerous" storm by reaching a Category 4.

A Category 4 hurricane can have winds up to 155 mph, can blow down trees, tear off roofs, destroy mobile homes and cause major damage to the lower floors of structures near the shore.

On Grand Cayman residents went to shelters Friday night while others sought haven in businesses recently rebuilt to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

A hurricane warning covered the Cayman Islands as well as the Cuban provinces Granma and Holguin, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Las Tunas, the hurricane center said. A warning means hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours.

The storm's projected path steers it away from the US mainland and out into the Atlantic.

Paloma is the 16th storm of the Atlantic storm season and the eighth hurricane. It has already brought heavy rain to parts of Honduras and Nicaragua.

Forecasters remind that Katrina, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005, and would be remembered as the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States, grew from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours. The buildings at the Caymans are however more solid and built to withstand strong winds, so the devastation is not expected to be as significance as the one in New Orleans in 2005.