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ITN
Ferocious Hurricane Ike threatens Cuba
Ferocious Hurricane Ike threatens Cuba
Hurricane Ike is barrelling toward Cuba as a Category 4 storm and is forecast to sweep into the central Gulf of Mexico. Ike's top sustained winds reached 135 miles per hour (215 kph), making it an "extremely dangerous" 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, 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. Ike was forecast to curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, ploughing 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. 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.
ITN | September 7, 2008
