Gustav swells to dangerous Cat 3 storm off Cuba
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago
HAVANA - Gustav swelled to an increasingly fearsome Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph as it shrieked toward the heartland of Cuba's cigar industry Saturday on a track to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, three years after Hurricane Katrina.
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The storm already has killed 78 people in the Caribbean and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it could become even stronger in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting the Katrina-battered U.S. coast.
Cuban state television announced that all buses and trains to and from Havana were suspended, as was ferry and air service to the Isla de Juventud, the outlying Cuban island-province next in Gustav's path.
Calls to the island were met with a recorded message saying lines were jammed due to excessive demand.
Stiff winds whipped intermittent rains across Havana, where police officers in blue and orange rain coats supervised workers removing stones, tree branches and other debris from the storied beachfront Malecon, as angry waves crashed against the sea wall below.
Yellow school buses lined up outside low-lying neighborhoods, ready to evacuate thousands of residents to shelters on higher ground.
Authorities announced they were prepared to "protect" the 20,000 tourists in Matanzas province, which includes the famous beach resort of Varadero.
Gustav rolled over the Cayman Islands Friday with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines while destroying docks and tossing boats ashore on Little Cayman Island.
But there was little major damage and no deaths were reported. More than 1,100 people spent the night in government shelters.
Two people were knocked down by huge waves as they tried to take pictures of the storm on Little Cayman, but there were no other immediate reports of injuries, said Hemant Balgobin, disaster manager for the Red Cross in the British territory.
"The wind was a little nerve-wracking, the howling. But it turned out OK," said Meagan Call, who rode out the hurricane in her hotel room. She had come to George Town from the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica to assist U.S. citizens.
By early Saturday, Gustav had left the Caymans behind and was about 185 miles east of the western tip of Cuba and just 55 miles east-southeast of the Isla de Juventud. It was expected to be moving northwest near 14 mph.
Hurricane force winds extended out 60 miles in some places.
Haiti's Interior Ministry on Saturday raised the hurricane death toll there to 66 from 59. Gustav also killed eight people in the Dominican Republic and four in Jamaica.
Gustav could strike the U.S. Gulf coast anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Texas, but forecasters said there was an increasing chance that New Orleans will get slammed by at least tropical-storm-force winds.
Residents began pouring out of the city along the highways and the government announced plans for broader evacuations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it expects a "huge number" of Gulf Coast residents will be told to leave the region this weekend.
As much as 80 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas production could be shut down as a precaution if Gustav enters as a major storm, weather research firm Planalytics predicted. Oil companies have already evacuated hundreds of workers from offshore platforms.
Retail gas prices rose Friday for the first time in 43 days as analysts warned that a direct hit on Gulf energy infrastructure could send pump prices hurtling toward $5 a gallon. Crude oil prices ended slightly lower in a volatile session as some traders feared supply disruptions and others bet the U.S. government will release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna was projected to curl westward into the Bahamas by early next week — and could eventually threaten Cuba. It had sustained winds near 50 mph early Saturday.
President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, a move that allows the federal government to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance in storm-affected areas
