As storms `Laura` and `Marco` approach the coasts of South America ... the government evacuates thousands of residents.

Weather of Arabia - Hurricane Marco and tropical storm Laura swept the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, forcing thousands of residents in coastal areas in the US state of Louisiana and Cuba to flee and evacuate their homes, flooding the streets of the Haitian capital with water, with expectations of a wider spread of damage to the region this week.

Marco, who intensified on Sunday into a hurricane, was expected to hit the Louisiana coast later on Monday with winds of 120 kilometers per hour.

Storm Laura struck the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Sunday, killing ten people before sweeping through Cuba on Sunday night, and is expected to gain strength before it reaches Texas or Louisiana on Thursday.

The US National Hurricane Center said that the coast of the Gulf of Mexico had never before experienced two hurricanes at once. The center said the earliest similar event occurred in 1933 when a major hurricane swept through southern Texas and turned another hurricane into a storm after crossing Florida.

The two tropical storms "Laura and Marco" in the Gulf of Mexico are approaching the coast of the United States