Storm bears down on Cayman Islands

Hurricane Paloma's winds whipped across George Town, Grand Cayman, yesterday as the storm began to make landfall. (Joanna Lewis/Associated Press)

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - Hurricane Paloma strengthened to a Category 3 storm as it began lashing the Cayman Islands yesterday with heavy rain and top winds of 115 miles per hour.

The government urged residents to stay off the streets and began preparing for evacuations in low-lying southern coastal regions. The approach of the storm triggered a run on stores and stranded hundreds as the airport closed on the Caribbean island chain.

The hurricane's center was about 30 miles south of Grand Cayman last night, and it was moving northeast at 6 miles per hour.

The center was expected to pass near Grand Cayman overnight, then punch Cuba, which is already suffering from billions of dollars in damage from two previous hurricanes this season.

Cuba's Communist Party daily Granma, recalling past late-season hurricanes such as a 1932 storm that killed about 3,000 people, said Paloma poses "a potential danger for the island."

Forecasters expect Paloma to weaken into a tropical storm over Cuba and then steer south of Florida through the Bahamas and into the Atlantic.

Water service across the Cayman Islands was turned off, hazard management director Barbara Carby said. Authorities asked all hotels to remove guests from the ground and first floors. Nearly 40 people were already staying in the islands' seven shelters.

ASSOCIATED PRESS