Gustav swelled to a fearsome Category 3 hurricane early Saturday with winds of 115 mph as it approached western Cuba on a track to hit the US Gulf Coast three years after Hurricane Katrina. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami called the storm “dangerous” and said it had reached the status of a major hurricane, the second one of this Atlantic season after Bertha in July. Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, rolled over the Cayman Islands Friday with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines. At first light Saturday, Associated Press journalists found that Grand Cayman island was spared major damage. Big surging waves pounded at the island, but there was little flooding, and wind damage was limited because islanders had removed signs and other items that could blow away. It was expected to cross Cuba's cigar country Saturday and head into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday. Gustav first struck Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, the smaller easternmost “Sister Islands” in the chain. Storm surge and heavy rains flooded the streets. Two people were knocked down by huge waves as they tried to take pictures of the storm on Little Cayman, but there were no other immediate reports of injuries, said Hemant Balgobin, disaster manager for the Red Cross in the British territory. There were reports of damaged homes in Cayman Brac and flooding throughout the islands but authorities had not yet fully assessed the situation, said Balgobin, who was on Grand Cayman, the largest in the chain. “Things weren't really as bad as they could have been,” he said. More than 1,100 people spent the night in government shelters in the three islands as high waves and heavy winds battered the chain, the National Emergency Operations Center said in a statement. Most people hunkered down in private homes or hotels. By early Saturday, Gustav's eye had left the Caymans behind and was about 255 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. It was moving northwest near 12 mph. Caymans authorities did not impose a curfew but urged people to remain indoors to avoid interfering with emergency workers.
