September 9, 2008 - 2:34AM
September 8, 2008
1930z
UNISYS Water Vapor hemisphere satellite (12 hour loop here)
Hurricane Ike assaulted Cuba on Monday with torrential rain and gale-force winds demolishing houses, crushing crops and threatening Havana after killing 61 people in Haiti, where a series of vicious storms has triggered a crisis.
Cuba carried out mass evacuations of residents and tourists before Ike -- the second hurricane to slam the island in just over a week -- made landfall Sunday night at Cabo Lucrecia in the east, pounding buildings along the coast with seven-meter (23-foot) waves and flooding coastal villages.
More than 1.5 million people were moved away from coastal areas in eastern and central Cuba and more than 9,000 foreign tourists were evacuated from the resort of Varadero east of Havana, officials said, as the storm tore a reckless path down to Cuba's southern coast before churning towards the capital.
Civil defense forces put Havana, a city of 2.2 million people where thousands of centuries-old building pose a hazard, on full hurricane alert ahead of an anticipated major hit on the city Tuesday.
Ike's devastation followed widespread destruction wrought by Hurricane Gustav which charged into western Cuba August 30 and destroyed or severely damaged 140,000 homes and buildings.
"In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," lamented the head of Cuba's meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, on state television.
At 1500 GMT, the center of the storm was about 70 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Camaguey and 465 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Havana, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
With sustained winds near 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, it was moving west at 22 kilometers (14 miles) per hour, with a turn northwest forecast later in the day.
Rubiera meanwhile reported that Ike's eye had moved out over the Caribbean Sea off the central province of Ciego de Avila, where it could regain force before making landfall again.
Hours earlier Ike sent huge waves spraying the tops of five-storey buildings in Baracoa, where hundreds of homes were destroyed.
"I have never seen anything like this," said one Baracoa resident of 57 years.
In Holguin, Ike washed away homes and power lines and trampled crops, according to local reports.
"It's raining heavily here and power has been cut since early at night," Alvaro Cruz, a resident of the city, told AFP by telephone.
With Ike weakening slightly as it made landfall, the NHC downgraded Ike to a category two storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale. But it threatened to ramp up again off Cuba's southern coast Monday.
It is then forecast to cross the island on a northwest track and into the Gulf of Mexico sometime Tuesday and train its sights on the US Gulf Coast, where much of the oil produced and consumed by the United States is refined.
The New York crude oil futures contract edged up 71 cents to 106.94 from the opening bell Monday, with an analyst attributing the gain to concern about the storm.
Ike plowed across the Turks and Caicos Saturday as a category four storm, causing injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven.
It also raked the Bahamas island of Great Inagua, forcing many of its 1,000 people to seek emergency refuge and jeopardizing tens of thousands of West Indian flamingos.
Worst-affected is Haiti , where four storms in three weeks have killed more than 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, where hundreds died in devastating floods from Tropical Storm Hanna.
Another 61 people perished in Haiti, including 57 in the village of Cabaret near Port-au-Prince, in flooding caused by Ike, officials said. Many of the victims were children younger than seven, they said.
"What has happened here is unimaginable," member of parliament Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital.
Hundreds of bodies were found in Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town.
UN peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.
More stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday. Heavy rains brought down a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives, forcing trucks loaded with emergency supplies to turn back.
Cuba carried out mass evacuations of residents and tourists before Ike -- the second hurricane to slam the island in just over a week -- made landfall Sunday night at Cabo Lucrecia in the east, pounding buildings along the coast with seven-meter (23-foot) waves and flooding coastal villages.
More than 1.5 million people were moved away from coastal areas in eastern and central Cuba and more than 9,000 foreign tourists were evacuated from the resort of Varadero east of Havana, officials said, as the storm tore a reckless path down to Cuba's southern coast before churning towards the capital.
Civil defense forces put Havana, a city of 2.2 million people where thousands of centuries-old building pose a hazard, on full hurricane alert ahead of an anticipated major hit on the city Tuesday.
Ike's devastation followed widespread destruction wrought by Hurricane Gustav which charged into western Cuba August 30 and destroyed or severely damaged 140,000 homes and buildings.
"In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," lamented the head of Cuba's meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, on state television.
At 1500 GMT, the center of the storm was about 70 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Camaguey and 465 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Havana, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
With sustained winds near 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, it was moving west at 22 kilometers (14 miles) per hour, with a turn northwest forecast later in the day.
Rubiera meanwhile reported that Ike's eye had moved out over the Caribbean Sea off the central province of Ciego de Avila, where it could regain force before making landfall again.
Hours earlier Ike sent huge waves spraying the tops of five-storey buildings in Baracoa, where hundreds of homes were destroyed.
"I have never seen anything like this," said one Baracoa resident of 57 years.
In Holguin, Ike washed away homes and power lines and trampled crops, according to local reports.
"It's raining heavily here and power has been cut since early at night," Alvaro Cruz, a resident of the city, told AFP by telephone.
With Ike weakening slightly as it made landfall, the NHC downgraded Ike to a category two storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale. But it threatened to ramp up again off Cuba's southern coast Monday.
It is then forecast to cross the island on a northwest track and into the Gulf of Mexico sometime Tuesday and train its sights on the US Gulf Coast, where much of the oil produced and consumed by the United States is refined.
The New York crude oil futures contract edged up 71 cents to 106.94 from the opening bell Monday, with an analyst attributing the gain to concern about the storm.
Ike plowed across the Turks and Caicos Saturday as a category four storm, causing injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven.
It also raked the Bahamas island of Great Inagua, forcing many of its 1,000 people to seek emergency refuge and jeopardizing tens of thousands of West Indian flamingos.
Worst-affected is Haiti , where four storms in three weeks have killed more than 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, where hundreds died in devastating floods from Tropical Storm Hanna.
Another 61 people perished in Haiti, including 57 in the village of Cabaret near Port-au-Prince, in flooding caused by Ike, officials said. Many of the victims were children younger than seven, they said.
"What has happened here is unimaginable," member of parliament Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital.
Hundreds of bodies were found in Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town.
UN peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.
More stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday. Heavy rains brought down a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives, forcing trucks loaded with emergency supplies to turn back.
