Thousands flee as storm slams into western Cuba

Massive Hurricane Ivan slammed into Cuba's sparsely populated western tip with the worst of its 250kph eyewall and moved into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening US oil installations and prompting thousands of Americans to flee its catastrophic strength.

Five Florida counties urged or, in some cases, ordered residents to leave yesterday as Ivan spun out of the Caribbean, where it cut a deadly swath through Grenada, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Cuba.

Ivan, one of the fiercest storms ever recorded in the region, pounded the heartland of Cuba's famed cigar industry Monday and smashed giant waves onto Grand Cayman island. It smashed away part of a hotel on Cayman's famed Seven Mile Beach on Monday.

The storm has killed at least 68 people in seven islands or countries in the Caribbean, devastated Grenada and badly battered Jamaica's Negril resort. Millions more people are threatened.

There were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or serious damage in Cuba.

Jose Rubiera, head of Cuba's National Meteorology Institute, announced on state television that the edge of the eye crossed the island's tip around 6:45pm on Monday. All national and international airports would be closed until today.

Monday night, there were reports of sustained 193kph winds with gusts of 230kph in Pinar del Rio city, said Dan Brown, a meteorologist at the US Hurricane Center in Miami.

Cuban Fidel Castro reiterated he would not accept any hurricane aid from the US, saying: "We won't accept a penny from them."

The huge storm attacked two islands simultaneously on Monday: Its western fringe drenched fields in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province as waves 6m tall were slamming the sea wall at the port in George Town, Grand Cayman.

Some million of Cuba's 11.3 million people were evacuated from the western region still recovering from Hurricane Charley. As Ivan moved in, Cuban state television reported waves up to 5m crashing onto the southern coast of the Isla de Juventud, or Isle of Youth, southwest of the main island. Ham radio operators reported downed trees and power lines, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Cuba's crop was safe, according to top grower Alejandro Robaina. Planting season doesn't begin until next month and remnants of January's harvest are protected in curing houses.

Tobacco the communist-run island's third-largest export, producing an average of 150 million cigars worth about US$240 million a year. Sugar, the lead export, was expected to be spared since much of the cane is grown in the east.

Oil shot up nearly US$1.50 a barrel on Monday as oil and natural gas producers evacuated rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell Oil said it was evacuating 750 workers.

Ivan killed at least 15 people in Jamaica, 39 in Grenada, five in Venezuela, one in Tobago, one in Barbados, four in the Dominican Republic and three in Haiti.

At 9am GMT yesterday, Ivan's eye was located by a US Air Force reconnaissance plane about 135km northwest of Cuba's western tip and 925km south-southeast of the Gulf of Mexico.

In Jamaica, stores and shelters filled with more than 15,000 people were running short of food, according to Nadene Newsome of Jamaica's emergency relief agency. Officials planned to fly food into cut-off areas by helicopter.

About percent of the island was still without power and 40 roads were blocked by debris. The airport in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, reopened on Monday.

In Grenada, devastated by a direct hit last week that killed 39 people and destroyed or damaged 90 percent of homes, an Italian yachter was rescued on Monday. He had ridden out the storm and been trapped nearly a week aboard his boat, police said.