The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Gustav could regain hurricane strength on Thursday as it passes between Jamaica and the southeastern coast of Cuba, and oil prices rose on fears that the storm could strike installations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. southern coastal state of Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal activated a storm crisis team and vowed to lead advance preparation efforts, after the city of New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“As long as there is a chance that we’ll be in this storm, I’ll be here in Louisiana,” said Jindal, warning he may miss next week’s Republican National Convention to nominate John McCain as the party’s candidate for the White House.

“I’m going to make sure I’m here personally to lead the preparation efforts and if necessary, any recovery efforts necessary after the fact,” he told CNN.

The storm was blowing winds of 60 miles per hour (95 kilometers) as it stalled over Haiti about 90 miles (150 km) west of Port-au-Prince, the center said in its latest report.

Gustav made landfall in Haiti Tuesday as a Category One hurricane — the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, eight people were killed in a mudslide caused by the storm.

All the victims were members of the same family, and had just returned to their home after evacuating two weeks ago, believing it safe after Tropical Storm Fay earlier this month, officials said.

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