Hurricane Ike Topples Havana Buildings
Date: 10-Sep-08
Country: CUBA
Author: Jeff Franks
Heavy rains and high winds pounded the Cuban capital as Ike, a borderline Category 1 storm on the five-step hurricane intensity scale with 75 mile per hour (120 km per hour) winds, passed nearby through the westernmost Pinar del Rio province.
Havana, a city of 2 million people on Cuba's northwest coast, has many beautiful old but crumbling buildings, prone to collapse in heavy weather.
Officials said 16 buildings had fallen on Tuesday, but no injuries were reported. About 250,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas and precarious buildings ahead of Ike.
"It sounds like Havana has been invaded by an army of ghosts," Havana resident Maria Valdez said.
Ike's most likely track would take it to the US coast near the Texas-Mexico border by Saturday -- a path that posed a diminished risk to the bulk of the 4,000 platforms that produce 25 percent of US oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.
Oil futures dipped more than US$2 to below US$105 as Ike shifted course, but energy companies continued preparations for the storm. BP Plc said it was shutting down all of its Gulf production as it evacuates workers from offshore rigs.
HEAVY DAMAGE
The weakened hurricane hit Cuba's southwestern coast after a rampage through eastern provinces that toppled trees, destroyed homes and downed power lines. The capital was littered with trees, foliage and debris as winds howled through the deserted streets.
Ike's damages could be between US$3 billion and US$4 billion, according to "some official sources," said Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at a news briefing in Geneva.
Cuban media said four people had died in the storm. Two men were electrocuted when they tried to take down an antenna that fell into a power line, a woman died when her house collapsed and a man was crushed when a tree toppled onto his home.
Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where the government conducts mass evacuations.
Ike made its second landfall in Cuba at Punta la Capitana in western Pinar del Rio province on Tuesday morning.
Its center was about 65 miles (105 km) west-southwest of Havana at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said.
Officials said 80,000 people had been evacuated in Pinar del Rio, where Hurricane Gustav leveled nearly everything in its path with 150 mph (240 kph) winds 10 days ago before moving on to Louisiana, on the US Gulf coast, two days later. Gustav went ashore near New Orleans, the city swamped by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
Storm-weary residents of the western province, many still awaiting repair of their shattered homes, said that after Gustav, Ike was a breeze.
"There are strong wind gusts but it's not even a shadow of Gustav," said Juan Carlos Abadia in the town of Candelaria. "We're accustomed to it. This is one disaster after another."
For days, Ike appeared to be aimed at the heart of US energy production near the coast of Louisiana and east Texas. As a result, energy companies, which had shut down most oil and gas output during Gustav, delayed restarting production or began closing it down again.
Although Ike's official long-range track showed it heading toward the Mexican border, a couple of computer models still had it aimed more toward east Texas, closer to where the largest concentration of offshore energy rigs resides.
It was expected to regain Category 3 strength before hitting the coast.
The southward shift eased fears that Ike would threaten New Orleans, still scarred by Katrina, which killed 1,500 people and caused US$80 billion in damage on the US Gulf Coast.
CUBA ECONOMIC TOLL
Ike caused serious damage when it hit Britain's Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas. Floods triggered by its torrential rains were blamed for at least 66 deaths in Haiti, where Tropical Storm Hanna killed 500 last week.
The United Nations said it would launch an emergency appeal for money with about 800,000 people in Haiti in need of urgent help, nearly half of them children. The impoverished nation has been hit by four storms in a month.
State-run Cuban media showed videos of widespread damage in the eastern provinces, which bore the full brunt of the storm and where rainfall topped 15 inches (40 cm) in many places.
Ike was expected to take a toll on Cuba's economy, still reeling from Gustav's destruction of more than 100,000 homes.
The storm swept through the main growing regions for sugar and coffee and shut down Cuba's nickel mines and processing plants. Production of nickel, the island's top export, was stopped as the storm approached on Sunday.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel, Marc Frank, Rosa Tania Valdes and Nelson Acosta in Havana, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Jim Loney in Miami; editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)