Ike spins toward US oil hub

2008-09-08 14:01

Havana - Hurricane Ike weakened into a Category 2 storm on Monday after roaring ashore in northeastern Cuba, but forecasters say it could regain intensity as it spins toward the US oil hub in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly New Orleans.

Ike pounded northeastern Cuba with 165km/h winds, torrential rains and massive waves, and it could slow further to a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale as it runs the 1 125km island, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Cuba's state-run television showed angry waves slamming into the sea wall and surging as high as nearby five-storey apartment buildings before flooding the streets of the city of Baracoa near the eastern tip of the communist-ruled island.

While a dangerous Category 3 storm, Ike had ripped through the southern Bahamas and added to the misery and death toll in storm-battered Haiti. Officials said at least 61 people had died in floods in impoverished Haiti on top of 500 killed last week by Tropical Storm Hanna.

The Cuban Meteorology Institute said the storm crashed into the coast near Punta Lucrecia in the state of Holguin, about 823km southeast of Havana.

"There is lot of worry, windows are beginning to break," a woman named Carmela said by telephone from the hotel where she works in the city of Holguin, 50km from Punta Lucrecia. "There's a lot of water, it's raining very heavily."

Officials said at least 1.1 million people were evacuated ahead of a storm expected to slash through the heart of Cuba, which is still reeling from Hurricane Gustav's hard hit on the west side of the long, narrow island last week.

After traversing Cuba, Ike could regain Category 3 strength over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters and threaten the 4 000 platforms that produce 25% of US oil and 15% of its natural gas, and point toward Louisiana and Texas.

Ike may threaten New Orleans, the city swamped in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1 500 people and caused $80bn billion in damage on the US Gulf Coast. Gustav narrowly missed New Orleans last Monday.

At 09:00 GMT, Ike was 65km southeast of Camaguey, Cuba, heading west near 24km/h. The storm's centre was expected to spin over central Cuba during Monday and reach the Gulf by late Tuesday, the hurricane centre said.

Rainfall of up to 50.80cm in Cuba was possible, forecasters said.

As Ike roared through the Caribbean, residents of the Florida Keys, a 177km island chain connected by bridges with only one road out, were told to evacuate as a precaution.

- Reuters