Port-Au-Prince: Tropical Storm Elsa battered the southern coasts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday, downing trees and blowing off roofs as it sped through the Caribbean, killing at least three people.

The storm was centered about 175 miles (280 kilometers) east-southeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was swirling west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).

It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) as the tropical storm, which had been a Category 1 hurricane earlier on Saturday, weakened in its approach to Hispaniola and Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm was forecast to hit Cuba next on a path that would take it to Florida, with some models showing it would spin into the Gulf or up the Atlantic Coast.

A tropical storm watch was in effect for the Florida Keys from Craig Key westward to Dry Tortugas.

Elsa prompted Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency in 15 Florida counties, including in Miami-Dade County where the high-rise condominium building collapsed last week.

One death was reported in St. Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died Saturday in separate events in the Dominican Republic after walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center.

The deaths come a day after Elsa caused widespread damage in several eastern Caribbean islands as a Category 1 hurricane, the first of the Atlantic season. Among the hardest hit was Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, including 62 homes that completely collapsed as the government promised to find and fund temporary housing to avoid clustering people in shelters amid the pandemic.

Dozens of trees and power lines lay strewn across Barbados, where several schools and government buildings were damaged and hundreds of customers were still without power on Saturday, according to officials.