[originaltext] Hurricane Lili lashed the Caribbean islands of Little Cayman a

Hurricane Lili lashed the Caribbean islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac Monday, and a top forecaster worried it might erupt into a major force in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting US shore.
   The fourth hmTicane of this year’s hurricane season could threaten the Louisiana or upper Texas coast by early Thursday,  said Max Mayfield,  director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.  Landfall is likely to be between Galveston, Texas, and Mobile, Alabama--possibly around Lake Charles, Louisiana, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. That would put it near where Tropical Storm Isidore made landfall a week ago.
   Mayfield said it is too early to tell where Lili might come ashore in the United States. Lili was upgraded Monday from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane and its maximum sustained winds have strengthened to 80 mph.