Hurricane Ike Weakens Over Western Cuba, Pushes Towards Gulf

Sept. 9, 2008 — -- Hurricane Ike, which has caused hundreds of deaths and spread destruction and misery across the Caribbean, has weakened since making landfall over western Cuba today, but forecasters predict the storm will strengthen when it hits the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico later this afternoon.

Overnight forecasters say the storm track has shifted slightly southward. According to latest projections, Ike could strengthen in the Gulf, perhaps becoming a Category 3 storm, with landfall now likely on the southern Texas coast or northern Mexican coast as early as Friday evening.

The new forecast shows Ike likely bypassing parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, which are still reeling and recovering from Hurricane Gustav.

Even on its new track farther away from Florida, Ike has triggered heavy rains and winds of up to 40 mph throughout the day.

A hurricane warning remains in effect for much of western Cuba as Ike, now a Category 1 hurricane that has claimed at least four lives in Cuba, is expected to lumber back over the island just to the west of Havana today as it makes its way northwest and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Cuba has already evacuated about 1.2 million people since the storm made landfall on the eastern coast of the island as a powerful Category 3 hurricane, The Associated Press reported. The state urged residents to take cover in government shelters or with friends and relatives.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life. So much force is terrifying," Olga Alvarez,70, of Camaguey, Cuba, told the AP. "We barely slept last night. It was just 'boom, boom, boom.'"

Many of the narrow streets of Camaguey, a city known for it's rich architecture, have been turned into giant piles of stone and brick rubble, the AP reported. There are hundreds more historic buildings in Havana, now in the crosshairs of Ike.

When Ike first made landfall over the city of Baracoa, in eastern Cuba, it destroyed 300 homes and damaged "hundreds more," Luis Torres, president of the Civil Defense Council in the Guantanamo province told the AP.

Ike is the second deadly direct hit this season or Cuba, Hurricane Gustav struck the island as a Category 4 storm Aug. 30, damaging 100,000 buildings.