THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's disaster relief chief says hurricane Gustav is growing into a monster Category 5 storm.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Brennan Linsley

The rough sea caused by Hurricane Gustav surges along the waterfront, in George Town, Grand Cayman Island, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. Gustav howled into Cuba's Isla de Juventud as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane on Saturday while both Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the path of the fast-growing storm.

The storm could reach landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast by early Tuesday.

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison told reporters several times at a briefing Saturday that the storm was strengthening into a Category 5 hurricane.

FEMA officials said Bill Read, the director of the National Hurricane Center, interrupted an afternoon teleconference involving the agency, Gulf Coast states and the National Weather Service to say he is going to issue a special advisory statement raising Gustav to Category 5.

That means winds greater than 250 km/h and a storm surge greater than five metres above normal.