Tropical storm "Hanna" continues its course towards the northeastern United States, leaving blackouts and heavy rain in its path, while Hurricane "Ike" threatens to enter level four in the Gulf of Mexico.
The eye of the hurricane "Ike" left the island of Great Inagua in the southeast of the Bahamas, causing extensive damage and prepares for onslaught against Cuba as a category four cyclone, reported the National Hurricane Center (CNH) EE. UU. in its bulletin from 18.00 GMT today.
The "extremely dangerous" cyclone "Ike" is maintained with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour and is expected to continue as the hurricane category increased while approaching the east of Cuba, "said CNH.
At least thirty people, including several children, were killed in flooding experienced by the passage of "Ike" in the Haitian town of Cabaret, located 24 kilometres north of Port-au-Prince, reported today the director of Civil Protection of Haiti, Jean High Baptiste.
"Ike" is moving strongly towards the Gulf of Mexico so that states like Florida have already begun evacuations.
The order to evacuate tourists from the cays began on Saturday, after the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, declared a state of emergency, while residents will leave this archipelago today.
The Red Cross opened shelters for evacuees of the keys on the premises of the Florida International University (FIU) in Miami.
"We must be prepared and be followed by radio and television developments," the governor said at a press conference. When it comes to hurricanes, he stressed, "there are no rules, so we must be prepared, vigilant and alert".
The east coast of the United States is still recovering from the passage of tropical storm "Hanna", which is still heading north and is expected to reach Canada.
"Hanna", which threatened to become a category one hurricane before landfall, hit yesterday between the states of North Carolina and South Carolina and rose rapidly throughout the east coast and caused numerous floods and blackouts.
The tropical storm has not yet left the country today and felt from the northern state of Connecticut to the southwestern state of New Hampshire, including the central state of Massachusetts, where winds of 40 kilometers per hour caused blackouts in the towns of Freetown and Westport.
"Hanna" dumped heavy rains and caused floods in some localities of the country's northeast coast as the waters reached between 10 and 15 centimeters.
In the state of Connecticut, which already started operating with the cleanup, rain caused chaos in the movement and because of the bad state of roads remained covered there were several traffic accidents.
The most serious in the town of Westport in which four people were wounded.
Also several trees were uprooted by strong winds and some 9,000 users were left without electricity, according to the company's Connecticut Light and Power. " The service has been restored virtually throughout the area.
The storm became a few moments in a tornado that struck the counties of Fairfield and New Haven.
The authorities, who issued storm alerts in all states bordering the coast, had already warned that in some points could be isolated tornadoes.
In the state of New Hampshire, some cars were trapped under water due to strong tromba water that fell continuously for 90 minutes which forced to close several stores and restaurants.
The rain affected even to the office of the Police Department this state whose garage was covered by more than one meter of water.
Although the torrential waters have affected almost every county governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, reported that there have been no fatalities.
Meteorologists follow closely the development of hurricane "Ike" which has caused enormous damage in the Bahamas and hundreds of thousands of evacuees in Cuba where they are expected to arrive tonight.
The Red Cross is already preparing an emergency facility to assist the people of the region and has chartered a plane leaving Panama with 20 tons of aid.
