Hurricane Ike tore into Cuba's northeastern coast Monday on a path that could take it over Havana on Tuesday morning and then toward the storm-weary U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week, CNN reported. At least 73 people in Haiti were killed by rains and flooding from Hurricane Ike, and a journalist on Grand Turk Island compared the destruction there with a "Twilight Zone" episode. While authorities evacuated the Florida Keys over the weekend in case Ike's path veered northward, President George W. Bush issued an emergency declaration to allow federal agencies to mobilize in Florida. Ike remained a "major hurricane" with top winds of 120 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida said at 2 a.m. ET Monday. This made it a Category Three storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which ranks hurricanes from the mildest (Category One) to most severe (Category Five). The eye, centered near the the north coast of eastern Cuba in Las Tunas province, was moving westward at about 14 mph, the center said. Forecasters said they expected the storm to turn toward the northwest later Monday, which could put it over the Cuban capital by Tuesday morning.
