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HAVANA : Deadly hurricane Gustav bore down on Cuba headed to the Gulf of Mexico Saturday, threatening to intensify into a category-four storm after leaving a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean.
Even before strengthening to a "dangerous" category three storm early Saturday, Gustav killed up to 85 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica and causing major damage in the Cayman islands, according to officials.
Evacuations were underway in coastal areas from northwest Cuba to Louisiana in the United States, where Gustav was predicted make landfall Monday or early Tuesday, three years after superstorm Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans.
Civil defence authorities in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province and most of northern Cuba said they were moving 190,000 people to safety, mainly from coastal towns vulnerable to flooding before Gustav hits shore.
The eye of the hurricane was expected to pass over the Isla de la Juventud, or Isle of Youth, to the south of the mainland early afternoon Saturday, before directly striking Pinar del Rio and battering the capital Havana to the east.
Early Saturday a Caymans official reported heavy damage from Gustav on Cayman Brac, the large eastern island of the Caymans group, with power and water supplies down.
"We're hoping that it's going to settle down enough that we can do some damage assessment," said Ernie Scott, District Commissioner of the Sister Islands.
"I'm expecting the HMS Iron Duke early and they're going to be providing significant assistance in our damage assessment operations," he said, referring to the British Royal Navy frigate in the area.
Hundreds of people fled into shelters on Grand and Little Cayman islands as some areas were affected by flooding.
The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami warned that Gustav, already blowing 205 kilometre (125 miles) per hour maximum sustained winds could further intensify before striking mainland Cuba.
The centre said tides could surge as much as 5.8 meters (19 feet) above normal in areas under the eye of the storm as it passes the Isle of Youth and mainland western Cuba.
The centre was giving the storm a nearly 40 percent chance of intensifying into a category-four hurricane, with sustained winds topping 210 kilometres (131 miles) per hour as it enters the Gulf of Mexico.
At 11:00 am (1500 GMT) the centre of the hurricane was located about 85 kilometres (55 miles) east-southeast of the Isle of Youth and moving toward the northwest at 22 kilometres (14 miles) per hour.
Earlier this week Gustav left a path of destruction through Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.
In Haiti, it left 66 dead plus 10 missing. In the neighbouring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight.
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters Friday that the storm had killed up to 11 and displaced between 3,500 and 4,000 people in his Caribbean island nation. The death toll remained unconfirmed on Saturday.
"I am concerned that there are still a number of persons who are still unaccounted for," Golding said.
Although the heaviest of the rains had subsided, many Jamaicans worried about returning home. "It is all wet and I am afraid to sleep inside there," said Kingston housewife Charlene Markland.
Anxiety meanwhile grew on the US Gulf Coast over Gustav's trajectory, with New Orleans beginning mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas Saturday.
Roads out of New Orleans were jammed with people fleeing a potentially disastrous strike on the city just three years after Katrina left some 1,800 dead along the coast.
Major oil producers BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.
Meanwhile another tropical storm in the Atlantic well north of Puerto Rico was forecast to head to the west and strike the central Bahamas by Tuesday and then travel directly toward central Cuba.
Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a five-million-dollar bounty on his head.
- AFP /ls
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