Ike Hurricane weakens to Category 2, but could recoverIke The hurricane weakened to Category 2 on Monday after coming to power in the northeast coast of Cuba, but meteorologists say it could regain strength while moving to the area of the Gulf of Mexico oil in the United States and possibly New Orleans.
Ike shook northeastern Cuba with winds of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour), torrential rains and big waves. The powerful storm could weaken slowly to a Category 1 on the scale five-tier Saffir-Simpson, while runs 1,125 kilometers from the island, said National Hurricane Center (CNH).
The Cuban state television showed huge waves on the shore of the sea and floods that inundated the streets in the town of Baracoa, near the eastern edge of the territory.
While it was a dangerous Category 3 hurricane, Ike remecer south of the Bahamas and added more misfortune to Haiti, the poorest country in the continent and a nation highly vulnerable to landslides generated by the rain.
Officials said that at least 61 people died in floods in Haiti, in addition to the 500 deaths last week caused by Tropical Storm Hanna.
The Meteorological Institute of Cuba said that the storm made landfall near Punta Lucrecia in the state of Holguin, about 823 kilometers southeast of Havana.
At 0900 GMT, Ike was located 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Camaguey, Cuba, please contact the west about 15 mph (24 kph). It is hoped that the center of the storm passing through the centre of Cuba during the Monday and reach the Gulf of Mexico late the seas, according to CNH.
According to the agency's meteorologists, the rains of the hurricane could reach 20 inches (50.8 centimeters) in Cuba
While Ike was moving in the Caribbean, residents in the Florida Keys, a chain of islands connected by bridges, began to be evacuated as a precaution.
There have been reported dead in Cuba, where they were evacuated more than one million people in eastern and central parts of the country.
In the city of Holguin, a few kilometers inland from the place where he joined Ike, the tension was palpable.
"There are a lot of water, it's raining a lot. They say that is approaching. There is concern. They started to break windows," said Carmela, a hotel employee of the city, while noise was heard glass.
Ike Cuba plaguing the island while still trying recover from the devastation caused eight days ago by Hurricane Gustav, which damaged over 100,000 houses in the western province of Pinar del Rio.
The rains and wind gusts of Ike destroyed some 200 homes in Baracoa, in addition to topple trees and light poles. Telephone communications with the city were cut.
Their economic impact can be devastating, because if it maintains its trajectory affect the nickel mines of Holguin, much of the sugar cane plantations, and several major resorts on the north coast.
The most likely trajectory of the Ike lead to the border states of Texas and Louisiana, but as the long term forecasts have a significant margin of error, it would be possible for a small diversion take you to New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina killed in 2005 to 1,500 people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, leaving addition, 80,000 million dollars in losses.
