Ike forces mass evacuations in Cuba

Damage heavy in island's east; Haiti's deaths rise over 1,000

People made their way over rubble left on the streets yesterday by Hurricane Ike in Baracoa, Cuba. The storm slowed and weakened as it moved slightly offshore but was forecast to hit Havana early today with renewed vigor (STR/ AFP/ Getty Images)

MIAMI - Hurricane Ike ripped through central Cuba yesterday, toppling colonial landmarks and forcing the evacuation of nearly 1 million people - with more likely to be displaced as the powerful storm plowed toward populous Havana.

Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro proclaimed his country on "combat alert" against the third massive storm to hit the island in as many weeks and what he portrayed as a heartless double standard that blocks US humanitarian aid.

The extent of Ike's damage elsewhere in the Caribbean emerged yesterday, a day after it ravaged Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas as a Category 4 hurricane with winds upward of 135 miles per hour and triggered more flooding in Haiti, where the death toll from the series of storms was reported to exceed 1,000.

In important farming and mining areas near Camaguey, Cuba, news agencies reported that buildings had collapsed under the ferocious winds, including colonial columns that graced the city, a designated UNESCO historical site.

Exiting into the Caribbean Sea at midday, Ike slowed its advance and the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported its sustained winds had subsided to about 80 miles per hour. But the center warned that it was likely to regain intensity overnight as it moved across the warm waters off Cuba's southern coast.

Forecasters feared Ike might hit Havana today with winds exceeding 100 miles per hour.

"It will have a very powerful fuel there," Jose Rubiera, head of Cuba's National Meteorological Institute, said on state television after Ike crossed into the shallow waters of the Gulf of Ana Maria.

Haiti's consul general for South Florida, Ralph Latortue, reported an even more dire situation in his homeland than was apparent from the images showing bloated, mud-covered bodies stacking up at makeshift morgues along the flooded west coast. More than 1,000 people have been killed in storms over the past month, 14,000 homes have been destroyed, and 5 million people are left without food, water, or shelter, he told journalists in Miami.

The US Navy sent its amphibious assault ship Kearsarge to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to assist in ferrying disaster relief to victims cut off by collapsed bridges and flooded towns. In contrast to the $100,000 in assistance offered to Cuba, Washington upped its aid to Haitian storm victims to $10 million.

Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham reported widespread damage to housing and landscape but no human casualties in Great Inagua, where Ike hit Sunday. There also were no confirmed casualties in the Turks and Caicos.

As Ike made its way westward across the 625-mile length of Cuba, it churned up five-story waves that blasted seaside towns and villages. Soldiers and civil defense volunteers moved more than 900,000 people from endangered areas inland to schools, hospitals, and other fortified buildings. At least 9,000 foreign tourists were among those uprooted, and Cuban media reported more evacuations in the capital. The eye was expected to pass south of Havana this morning.

Evacuations are sometimes mandatory in Cuba, a policy the country's Communist rulers say has prevented deaths and injury.

Raul Castro, the former defense minister who took over for his older brother as president in February, spent yesterday directing the massive evacuation and public security operations from Havana in a conference call with the leaders of all 14 Cuban provinces, the Communist Party daily Granma reported.

Fidel Castro, 82 and convalescing at a secret location, issued one of his periodic "reflections," praising Cuba's civil defense efforts and accusing the US government of reveling in Cuba's sorrows from Ike and the storms that preceded it, Gustav and Hanna.

At least 140,000 homes in Cuba were damaged by Gustav and Hanna, and preliminary reports from the eastern provinces where Ike first made landfall estimated that at least 10,000 more were toppled or severely damaged.

Fidel Castro warned even before Ike hit that recovery costs would be in the billions of dollars for a nation in which the average monthly salary is less than $20.

"The world has admired our people's conduct under the scourge of Gustav. As our enemies cynically rubbed their hands with glee, our friends, who are obviously not few, are determined to cooperate with our people," the elder Castro wrote, referring to aid sent by Russia, Vietnam, China, and Venezuela.

Hurricane preparedness in Cuba, where there is rarely any loss of life despite the frequent battering, is one of Castro's proudest achievements.

It also is a political tool in the hands of the semi-retired revolutionary, who condemns the US embargo on his island's 11.2 million citizens as particularly inhumane in times of natural disaster.

The US government expressed regret last week over the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Gustav and offered to send a disaster assessment team to Cuba. It also offered $100,000 in relief aid. Both were politely rejected.