UPDATE - Powerful Hurricane Michelle pounds through Cuba
Date: 05-Nov-01
Country: CUBA
Author: Andrew Cawthorne
Michelle, described by experts as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane, gathered speed overnight and was packing winds of 135 mph (217 kph) as it churned into Cuba's southern coast at the Bay of Pigs yesterday afternoon.
As a much weaker storm in previous days, it killed 10 people, left 26 missing and made thousands homeless in Central America.
At 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) the eye of the hurricane was entering the Cuban mainland on the Zapata Peninsula - scene of President Fidel Castro's 1961 defeat of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion - after earlier passing the tiny Isle of Youth, 30 miles (48 km) off Cuba's southern coast.
Having picked up speed to 13 mph (20 kph), Michelle was set to plow through Matanzas and Villa Clara provinces, with severe effects throughout the center and west of the island, Cuba's Havana-based Weather Institute said.
Michelle was then likely to lose some strength as it crossed over central Cuba's mountainous zone. It was predicted to veer northeast later yesterday or early on Monday into the Florida Straits and toward the Bahamas, dealing southern Florida a glancing blow.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered for the Florida Keys.
Since morning, torrential rains, 88-mph (140-kph) winds and 15-foot (5-meter) waves hammered the Isle of Youth - said to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "Treasure Island." Electricity was cut, and phone lines to the island went down at midmorning.
Winds of 75 mph (120 kph) battering the capital Havana brought down some trees and cables, and sent waves crashing over the seafront Malecon boulevard as nervous residents huddled indoors, peering out of taped-up windows. Waves up to 25 feet (8 metres) high were hammering the entire central-southern coast, reporters in the zone said.
EYE OF STORM APPROACHING
"It's coming right over us," said Jose Rubiera, the Cuban Weather Institute's chief meteorologist. "The eye is getting closer.... It could even get stronger as it approaches us."
Michelle, which brought flooding to Honduras, Nicaragua and Jamaica, was moving north at 12 mph (19 kph).
Civil Defense officials said 576,000 people - more than 1 in 20 Cubans - had already been evacuated to safe shelters, and 625,000 animals were also moved. They urged Cubans to stay at home and watch out for loose power cables, the main cause of death in previous hurricanes.
"The priority is to save the lives of this revolutionary Cuban family," said Astul Castellanos, a Civil Defense spokesman.
At 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), Michelle's center was over the Zapata Peninsula, about 60 miles (95 km) south of the northern beach resort of Varadero, at latitude 22.3 north and longitude 81.3 west, according to the latest report from the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
"This is going to be a very rough day for Cuba," said Edward Rappaport of the U.S. center.
Cuban state television, devoted to hurricane preparations, showed images from 1932, when a hurricane flattened the unprepared coastal town of Santa Cruz del Sur and killed more than 3,000 people.
As a Category 4 hurricane, Michelle is capable of inflicting heavy damage on Cuba. But authorities were confident several days of preparations and the mass evacuation would minimize damage and prevent loss of life.
"We're calm, serene and secure," said President Fidel Castro, who in the past has personally directed Cuba's military-like hurricane operations. Castro left Havana for the central province of Villa Clara yesterday afternoon.
FRANTIC PREPARATIONS
In Havana, home to 2 million of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants, residents on the weekend had formed large lines to buy food and gasoline, cleaned debris off the streets, taped up the windows of their homes, tied down loose roofing and covered holes with boards. Thousands were evacuated from the dilapidated coastal capital's danger zones near the sea and in Old Havana.
"My house is ready, protected. The windows a