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Menacing Hurricane Ike powers toward Cuba, Gulf
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 07 - 00 - 2008


Hurricane Ike barreled toward
Cuba as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm on Sunday and
was forecast to sweep into the central Gulf of Mexico as a
large and powerful storm echoing Hurricane Gustav, reported reuters.
Ike's top sustained winds reached 135 miles per hour (215
kph), making it a savage Category 4 on the five-step Saffir
Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters said Ike could strengthen further before
sweeping into Cuba late on Sunday, severely threatening sugar
cane fields, the tourist hotels of Varadero and the crumbling
colonial buildings of Havana.
The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south
Florida seemed an increasingly less likely target, but visitors
were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida Keys island chain
on Saturday.
Ike was forecast to curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the
wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, plowing toward an area
that produces a quarter of domestic U.S. oil. Gustav slammed
ashore near New Orleans, which was swamped and traumatized by
Hurricane Katrina three years ago but largely spared by
Gustav.
Oil companies had begun returning workers to the offshore
platforms that were evacuated before Gustav hit Louisiana on
Monday west of New Orleans. But one company, Shell Oil Co.
, said on Saturday it had stopped returning workers in
case new evacuations were needed.
The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once
it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico. But over water it was
expected to rapidly regain its former intensity.
"In five days there will be a large hurricane in the
central Gulf of Mexico," the hurricane center said.
Alerts went up across eastern Cuba as residents shivered at
the prospect of another major storm a week after Hurricane
Gustav devastated parts of western Cuba. Tourists were
evacuated from the Guardalavaca resort on Holguin province's
northern coast, as were thousands of students picking coffee in
the mountains.


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