Hurricane Ike swirled over the Gulf of Mexico today, targeting Texas near the US offshore oil patch after toppling decrepit buildings in Cuba's capital and ripping the communist-run island from end to end.
Ike, a Category 1 storm with 130kph winds, left a long trail of destruction across the Caribbean and had energy companies fearful it could do the same to their Gulf oil rigs as they scurried to evacuate workers and shut down production.
Forecasters said Ike would likely regain power in the Gulf's warm waters and become a major storm again, revving up to a Category 3 on the five-step hurricane intensity scale with a minimum of 178 kph winds.
But latest projections pointed Ike toward the middle of the Texas coast, skirting to the west of the main region for offshore production in the Gulf, which provides a quarter of US oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas.
New Orleans, still scarred by Katrina, which killed 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on the US Gulf Coast in 2005, appeared to be out of danger.
Earlier, the hurricane centre said in its latest advisory Ike was 165km north-northeast of Cabo San Antonio on the western tip of Cuba. It had slowed slightly as it churned west-northwest at 11kph, a course it was expected to follow for the next day or two.
Rainfall of up to three inches was possible in the lower Florida keys, which could also face storm surges, large waves and isolated tornadoes and waterspouts today, the centre said. Large swells would affect the east coast of Florida for the next day or so and could produce dangerous rip currents.
In Cuba, big waves and storm surges were expected to subside today, but heavy rains on the western end of the island could produce flash floods, the centre said.
Ike has already wreaked widespread damage in Cuba.
Few official figures have emerged, but state-run media showed a panorama of destruction across the island, still reeling from the more powerful Hurricane Gustav 10 days ago.
Ike struck eastern Cuba on Sunday with 195kph winds and torrential rains that destroyed buildings, wiped out the electricity grid, toppled trees, leveled crops including sugar cane fields, and turned rivers into roaring torrents.
After up to 40cm of rain fell on the island the downpour continued today even as Ike moved away, causing widespread flooding and growing alarm among officials.
Ike's damage could total between $3 billion and $4 billion, according to some official sources, said Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at a news briefing in Geneva.
Cuba said Ike did no serious damage to its key nickel mines and processing plants and it expected to restart production of its top export in a few days.
Havana, which barely escaped the full wrath of Gustav, was pounded by Ike's winds and rain on Monday and yesterday, which toppled at least 16 of the many beautiful but crumbling old buildings in the capital.
A total of 2.6 million people were evacuated ahead of Ike, or about 22 per cent of the country's 11.4 million population, but officials said four people died in the eastern provinces.
No deaths were reported from Gustav, but state-run Prensa Latina said yesterday it damaged 140,000 buildings - 90,000 of them homes - when it blasted across the Isle of Youth and westernmost province of Pinar del Rio.
After crossing the eastern provinces, Ike dipped into the Caribbean and headed northwest where it made its second Cuba landfall yesterday at Punta la Capitana in westernmost Pinar del Rio province.
The storm ripped across the same region struck by Gustav before leaving the island near the town of Manuel Sanguily on Pinar del Rio's north central coast.
Before Cuba, Ike hit Britain's Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane. Floods triggered by its torrential rains were blamed for at least 71 deaths in Haiti, where Tropical Storm Hanna killed 500 last week.
Reuters