Tropical storm Tomas regained hurricane strength Friday in the Caribbean, the US National Hurricane Center said, with heavy rains and winds lashing Haiti where thousands have been told to flee tent cities.

The hurricane was packing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour and was bearing down on impoverished Haiti, threatening further disaster in a country still reeling from a catastrophic January earthquake and battling a growing cholera outbreak.

"The center of Tomas will pass near western Haiti this morning, near or over extreme eastern Cuba today, and near or over the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands later today or tonight," the NHC said in a bulletin.