Hurricane Ivan sliced through the western tip of Cuba late on Monday, tearing off roofs, triggering mudslides and hurtling toward the Gulf of Mexico and the United States coast after killing at least 71 in the Caribbean.
Ivan’s eye made landfall at Cape San Antonio late on Monday and took about three hours to cross the western tip of Cuba, 350km west of Havana, said Cuba’s Meteorological Institute.
At 6am GMT on Tuesday, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre said the storm was moving into the Gulf of Mexico, 90km west-northwest of the western tip of Cuba, and that a hurricane watch had been issued for the Northern Gulf coast of the US.
As the first hurricane-force winds and sheets of rain slammed into Cuba, authorities said roofs were torn off homes, flooding damaged houses, fishing and farm installations. Mudslides cut off at least two towns.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in Cuba.
Authorities had initially hoped the devastating storm would steer clear of the island, prompting President Fidel Castro to say: “Ivan has had a friendly attitude.”
Castro on Monday travelled to the western province of Pinar de Rio, where he personally led emergency operations, including the biggest evacuation in the country’s history, in which 1,6-million people moved to safer ground, some even staying in air-raid shelters.
Cuba already suffered an estimated $1-billion in damages from Hurricane Charley last month, but Castro has insisted he will not accept any aid from the US or any other country “that has adopted sanctions against Cuba”.
Ivan on Tuesday packed sustained winds of 260kph, with higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 160km from the centre. It was moving toward the northwest at 15kph.
Its projected track takes it near Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, and later this week toward the US, where forecasters said it could make landfall in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana.
The power of the storm, a rare top-scale category-five hurricane, could change in coming days, but in any case, “Ivan is forecast to be a major hurricane at US landfall,” said Miles Stewart, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Centre.
If it slams into the US coast at its present strength it would be only the fourth category-five hurricane to hit the US since 1935.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mexico ordered 5 000 people to evacuate islands and coastal areas along the Yucatan peninsula and set up shelters in the tourist resort of Cancun.
Mexico was also warily eyeing another powerful storm, Hurricane Javier, which roared about 430km off the Pacific coast on Monday, a category-four storm packing winds at 220kph.
The tiny spice island of Grenada was the worst hit by Ivan, with at least 37 people killed last week, the Pan-American Health Organisation said.
As many as 90% of all buildings were damaged or destroyed and between 5 000 and 8 000 of the island’s 100 000 inhabitants are still living in shelters, officials said.
In Jamaica, police put the death toll at 21 after powerful winds and heavy rain from Ivan tore down houses, felled trees and destroyed roads in the nation of 2,7-million.
At least one looter was shot dead and two police officers wounded as gangs of armed men ransacked homes and businesses, authorities said.
The hurricane was also blamed for five deaths in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic, three in Haiti and one in Tobago.
There were no official reports of deaths in the Cayman Islands that were hit by the hurricane on Sunday, causing extensive damage.
“The winds ripped the apartments like match sticks, the whole island has taken a battering. Cars and trucks were floating away like toys,” a reporter told Citadel Radio from Grand Cayman.
Canada on Monday announced 500 000 Canadian dollars in aid for Caribbean nations hit by Ivan, while the International Monetary Fund said it “stands ready to help the affected member countries … in any way it can”.
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has extended a state of emergency over the entire state, which is still mopping up from the ravages earlier this month by Hurricane Frances and last month by Charley.
Residents in north-western Florida, the most likely area for Ivan’s US landfall, were busy boarding up their homes and businesses as authorities opened emergency shelters.
Oil giants Shell, BP and ChevronTexaco said they were evacuating workers from some oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of the hurricane’s passage. — Sapa-AFP
Ivan pushes up oil prices