Ike Hits Cuba, May Head Toward Gulf Oil Installations

By Camilla Hall and Aaron Sheldrick

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ike smashed into northeastern Cuba on a course that may take the hurricane through the center of the island and into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening U.S. oil installations hit by Gustav a week ago.

``The destruction in Cuba is going to be extensive,'' Matthew Rinde, meteorologist at Accuweather.com, said today in a telephone interview from State College, Pennsylvania. ``Once it gets back out over the water it should restrengthen and that should be as early as Wednesday morning.''

The system remained at Category 2 on the five-step Saffir- Simpson scale of intensity, with sustained winds of 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, after weakening earlier today from Category 3, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on its Web site at 8 a.m. Miami time. Ike may weaken further while over land, forecasters said. The system was centered over the city of Camaguey and moving west at 23 kph.

Ike killed 47 people in Haiti before forcing the evacuation of more than 800,000 people in Cuba, Agence France-Presse said. Both nations were recovering from Hurricane Gustav. The hurricane center's five-day track for Ike shows the system moving toward coastal waters near the Louisiana-Texas border.

Crude oil rose 2.7 percent from a five-month low as producers delayed resuming operations in the region that were stalled by Gustav.

Warnings, Watches

The Cuban government issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Guantanamo west through Matanzas. A tropical-storm warning and a hurricane watch were in effect for the provinces of La Habana, Ciudad de Habana, Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth.

In Florida, a tropical-storm warning and a hurricane watch were declared for the Keys from Ocean Reef south to the Dry Tortugas, the center said. A tropical-storm watch was issued for southwestern Florida's Gulf waters from East Cape Sable to Bonita Beach.

The Bahamas maintained a tropical-storm warning for Andros and Ragged islands, while a tropical-storm watch was in effect for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

A warning means tropical-storm or hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours. A watch means the conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Louisiana Emergency

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency yesterday in preparation for Ike. New Orleans residents were warned to prepare to evacuate again, after orders to leave as Gustav approached last week, three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. New Orleans was spared the worst of Gustav.

``Hurricane Ike may impact the coastal parishes of Louisiana with hurricane strength winds, wave surges, high tides, torrential rain and tornado activity,'' Jindal said in a statement on the state's Web site. ``The storm may make landfall on the Louisiana coast on or about Sept. 13, 2008, with the expectation that hurricane-force winds will reach the Louisiana coast prior to landfall.''

The storm may dump as much as 51 centimeters (20 inches) of rain on parts of Cuba, the center said. ``These rains are likely to cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides over mountainous terrain,'' the center said.

Gustav destroyed western Cuba's main crops, bananas, citrus, avocadoes and corn, the official Granma news service said. Agriculture was further hit as hundreds of thousands of farm animals were killed, Granma said.

Haiti Hit

Ike brought more rain to Haiti, which was hit by Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay last month before Hanna swept through last week.

``The rains from Ike have made it even more difficult for aid workers to get into some of the worst-flooded areas,'' Wesley Charles, the national director of World Vision in Haiti, said in an e-mailed statement. ``People are becoming increasingly desperate.''

In nearby Grand Turk and North Caicos Islands, initial reports show 80 percent of homes suffered damage from Ike, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc., which quantifies risk for insurance companies.

``A number of houses lost their roofs, as well as a prison,'' said Stephen Russell, commander of the National Emergency Management Agency in Nassau, the Bahamas. ``On Great Inagua, many homes also lost roofs and all phone lines are down.''

The British naval vessel HMS Iron Duke was dispatched to assist in relief efforts in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a U.K. overseas territory, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, citing the ship's captain.

Death Toll

The death toll from the four storms has risen to at least 600 in Haiti, AFP said. As many as 600,000 people may need assistance in Haiti, the United Nations humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said.

Cuba yesterday urged the U.S. to ease its trade embargo and open private credit lines for food imports into the island in the wake of Gustav, AFP reported.

President George W. Bush yesterday declared a state of emergency for Florida, authorizing federal disaster assistance, the White House said. Officials yesterday urged the 80,000 residents of the Keys to leave for the mainland.

``I haven't evacuated in 15 years,'' David Black, 47, a clerk at the Heron House hotel in Key West, said in a phone interview yesterday. ``It's less trouble to just weather the hurricane and if you go to Miami or Orlando, you can get hit by the storm you're running from.''

Oil Production

Energy producers reported that personnel from 10 rigs and 202 production platforms have been evacuated, the Minerals Management Service said yesterday on its Web site. There are about 717 manned production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Most energy output in the Gulf has been halted since Hurricane Gustav ripped through the area and made landfall in Louisiana on Sept. 1. The Gulf is home to more than a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Officials in Florida's Monroe County, where the Keys are located, urged tourists to leave the islands yesterday, Chuck Mulligan, a spokesman with the Tallahassee-based state Division of Emergency Management, said yesterday.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency told reporters in Washington yesterday they had positioned supplies of food and water in the Gulf states and are ready to help.

Far to the east of Ike, the remnants of Tropical Storm Josephine produced showers and thunderstorms over the Atlantic and had a low potential to regenerate into a cyclone, the hurricane center said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net; Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net.