Hurricane Lili batters Cuba
HAVANA (AP) – Hurricane Lili strengthened as it roared across western Cuba on Tuesday, forcing thousands from their homes as emergency workers across the Caribbean grappled with the damage it left in its wake. The storm killed seven people in Jamaica and St. Vincent. Lili was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane when its winds increased to nearly 100 mph as it whipped across Cuba and began taking aim for Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Gulf coast.
Forecasters put it near the Texas or Louisiana coast by Thursday and said sustained winds were likely to strengthen.
Category 2 storms have winds above 96 mph and can rip boats from their moorings and prompt serious flooding and wind damage. Government television showed images of high winds whipping the leaves of towering palms on the Isle of Youth, but authorities said there were no casualties and no immediate reports of major damage.
“Western Cuba will continue to feel heavy rains and strong storm surges until Wednesday,” said Martin Nelson, lead forecaster at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“But by the time the storm gets to the United States, it will be stronger and it will pack a bigger storm surge.”
Cuban President Fidel Castro traveled to the western province of Pinar del Rio early Tuesday afternoon to check on civil defense plans as the hurricane roared across the island’s southern end.
At 2 p.m. EDT, the eye of the storm was crossing the southernmost part of Cuba, about 135 miles southwest of Havana.
Hurricane force winds extended 25 miles and tropical storm force winds another 140 miles.
Lili, the fourth hurricane this year, was moving northwest at about 14 mph.
In New Orleans, authorities were discussing possible evacuation plans while coastal residents boarded up and sandbagged homes, stocked up on food and storm supplies and cleaned up debris from the damage caused last week by Tropical Storm Isidore.
In western Cuba, fishermen hurried to port to secure their vessels. Officials said nearly 30,000 people fled to government shelters and more than 100,000 took refuge with friends and family members in safer areas.
The entire seaside town of La Coloma, with 6,500 residents, was evacuated.
Cubana Airlines halted all flights, and school classes in western Cuba were canceled as Lili’s stinging rains began lashing the shore of western Pinar del Rio province.
Two weeks ago, Isidore caused major damage here when it landed as a hurricane, especially to agricultural crops. The lucrative tobacco crop, however, had already been harvested.
Mexicans were abandoning homes in the northeastern Yucatan peninsula, where Lili’s heavy rains were expected later Tuesday. Isidore damaged 95,000 homes there.
The Yucatan coast from Cozumel to Progreso was under a tropical storm watch.
Lili grew into a hurricane on Monday as its winds topped 74 mph and its eye tore across Cayman Brac, uprooting trees and utility poles, knocking out power and tearing roofs from apartment complexes, legislator Lyndon Martin said in the British territory.
Lili reached the Caribbean last week as a tropical storm, leaving four dead in St. Vincent, damaging 400 homes in Barbados and destroying half of St. Lucia’s banana crop.
In Jamaica, where three people were swept away by flood waters Sunday, blue skies returned Tuesday and workers began clearing debris from blocked roads. As many as 40 homes were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kyle sent winds gusting Tuesday over the mid-Atlantic British island of Bermuda, which posted a tropical storm watch.
Kyle’s winds were nearly 40 mph, and it was about 275 miles south-southwest of Bermuda.