Ike rakes Cuba, may hit Havana head-on

Havana, Sept. 8: Hurricane Ike raged over Cuba early on Monday, pummelling the island with gale force winds and torrential rain after killing dozens in beleaguered Haiti and worsening its growing humanitarian disaster.

The second hurricane to strike in less than a week prompted more than 800,000 people to evacuate coastal areas of eastern Cuba. More than 9,000 foreign tourists were moved out of the resort of Varadero.

The hurricane made landfall at Punta Lucrecia late on Sunday, the head of Cuba’s meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, told state television.

Packing 195-km per hour winds, Ike is the second powerful storm in just eight days to strike Cuba, following Hurricane Gustav.

"In all of Cuba’s history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," lamented Rubeira.

Just before dawn, the eye of storm was practically over Cabo Lucrecia on the northern coast of eastern Cuba, about 220 km east of Camaguey and moving west, according to the US National Hurricane Centre which said it was a Category Three storm on a scale going up to five.

Ike plowed across the Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category Four storm late on Saturday, causing injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven, before weakening.

The hurricane raked the Bahamas island of Great Inagua, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, causing an island-wide power failure and forcing many of its 1,000 to seek emergency refuges.

The main concern is now in Haiti, where four storms in three weeks have killed at least 600 people and left hundreds of thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.

Officials continued aid operations in the flood-stricken town of Gonaives, devastated by flooding from Tropical Storm Hanna. Another 47 people perished in the village of Cabaret, near Port-au-Prince, in flooding caused by Ike, officials said.

Meanwhile, Cuba raised its hurricane alert-level to maximum on Monday for the capital Havana as deadly Hurricane Ike raged westward across the island towards the city of 2.2 million people, Cuban state television announced.

Thirteen of Cuba's 14 provinces have now been placed on maximum alert, according to bulletins by the civil defence forces, as the storm battered the island with torrential rain, massive waves and winds of 155 km per hour.

Havana is a key concern during storms, particularly the neighbourhood of Old Havana where thousands of fragile, centuries-old buildings are prone to cave-ins after heavy rains. Ike is forecast to hit Havana at midday on Tuesday.

—AFP