Locals look at waves battering the Malecon waterfront in Havana, before the arrival of Hurricane Ike.
Locals look at waves battering the Malecon waterfront in Havana, before the arrival of Hurricane Ike.

Hurricane Ike slams Cuba



HAVANA // Hurricane Ike plowed across Cuba today, killing four people with tearing winds and lashing rains as it headed toward the Gulf of Mexico and the United States. Ike, which had already killed 66 people in saturated Haiti, drove some two million Cubans from their homes and caused widespread destruction. The storm was battering the island with winds of 130 kph, making it a diminished category one storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, but was dumping enough rain to cause "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," according to the US National Weather Service.

Cuban authorities yesterday announced plans to evacuate 170,000 people from vulnerable parts of Havana, with the storm still thrashing the island more than 24 hours after it made landfall on Sunday. Officials said the massive storm would skirt the city on Tuesday before moving over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where the bulk of US oil refineries are located, and regain strength as it churns toward the Texas coast.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said yesterday it had already evacuated 150 workers and would move its remaining 500 employees in the Gulf by Wednesday. Authorities in Cuba have mounted a massive civil defence operation around the island with millions of residents moved to safer buildings and away from the surging ocean tides. At dawn the eye of the storm was 150km south-east of Havana. The hurricane killed three men and a woman in Cuba, a relatively rare event in a country which prides itself on preparedness in facing down the hurricane season's tempests.

"There is substantial damage in housing, and we are evaluating the farm sector," said Col Jose Betancourt of the civil defence department. The storm drove seven-metre waves onto Cuba's eastern coastline as it came ashore late on Sunday, and destroyed an unknown number of homes as it swept across Camaguey province. "I'm 59, I have seen a lot of hurricanes, but I have never seen one that caused so much destruction," an unnamed resident of Camaguey told Cuban television by phone.

Cuban authorities also said seven people had been injured as Ike crossed from east to west. In Holguin province, electric poles were knocked flat on roads, trees blown down and roofs shredded, according to television reports. Cuban television reported that both President Raúl Castro and his brother former president Fidel Castro were monitoring the storm "minute by minute," with Mr Fidel, 82, "up to date with everything that is happening," a television announcer said.

After crossing the island, Ike turned onto an offshore track parallel to Cuba's south coast, putting it on a path to plough by the Isle of Youth and cross the country a second time in western Pinar del Rio province. That was where Hurricane Gustav flattened villages and destroyed crops just over a week ago. In Baracoa, Ike sent waves spraying the tops of five-story buildings, and hundreds of homes were destroyed, many of them swept away by raging currents.

Ike's devastation followed widespread destruction wrought by Hurricane Gustav, which charged into western Cuba on August 30 and destroyed or severely damaged 140,000 homes and buildings. "In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," said the head of Cuba's meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, on state television. *AFP

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now


View from DC

The inside scoop from The National’s Washington bureau

      By signing up, I agree to The National's privacy policy
      View from DC