Hurricane Ike moved across Cuba west of the densely populated capital's aging buildings on Tuesday after crossing the length of the Caribbean island, destroying homes, killing at least four people, and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate. Strong winds and heavy rains hit Havana, many of whose historic buildings along the ocean are in poor repair and vulnerable to collapse. Police stopped all but emergency and official traffic in the capital, and the rubble from crumbling balconies covered sidewalks. Cuba, which has carried out successful evacuations for years, ordered hundreds of thousands of people - more than one-tenth of its 11 million population - to seek safety with relatives or at government shelters. Government television reported that the storm killed four people, the island's first hurricane deaths this year. No one was killed when Gustav hit western Cuba - the same area hit by Ike on Tuesday - as a powerful Category 4 storm on August 30. After hitting the Bahamas and inflicting more floods in Haiti that have killed at least 331 people, Ike reached eastern Cuba as a strong Category 3 hurricane, then weakened Monday as it moved westward along the length of the Caribbean's largest island. Ike moved just to the south of Cuba late Monday, then came back ashore Tuesday morning as a Category 1 storm southwest of Havana. It was expected to cross the island again and move out over the Gulf of Mexico in the afternoon. Forecasters said the storm would strengthen before hitting northern Mexico or Texas this weekend. “When it's out of Cuba it has the potential to become a lot stronger,” National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist Felix Garcia said in Miami. Officials warned that unrelated heavy rains in northern Mexico had caused several dams to reach capacity or spill over. If Ike hits the area as expected, evacuations may be necessary. The storm has killed at least 80 people so far. In addition to the four deaths in Cuba, 74 people were killed in flooding in Haiti, and two people died in the Dominican Republic.
