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Hurricane Paloma weakened into a tropical storm over Cuba yesterday after flooding the southern coast. Early reports of damage were limited, but Cuban media said that the late-season storm toppled a major communications tower, interrupted electricity and phone services and sent sea water almost a mile inland near where Paloma made landfall as a category 4 hurricane. In the central-eastern province of Camaguey, more than 220,000 people were evacuated, while another 170,000 people were moved in the eastern province of Las Tunas. There were no reports of storm-related deaths.
Associated Press in Havana
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By Shurna Robbins
GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) - Hurricane Paloma strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm on Saturday as it pounded the wealthy British Caribbean territory of the Cayman Islands and headed towards storm-battered Cuba.
Paloma's eye passed just to the east of Grand Cayman, the main island and home to most of the more than 50,000 people in the important offshore financial centre, but damage appeared to be light and there were no immediate reports of deaths.
"There is no damage to central George Town, where the bulk of the financial sector is located," said Cindy Scotland, an official with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. "So there is no reason to think there has been any damage in any way to the infrastructure of the financial services sector."
"The Authority does not expect any reports of significant, if any, interruptions in business," she said.
Cuba, already hammered this year by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, declared an emergency in central and eastern parts of the island, cancelled all national air and ground transportation and began evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents.
Authorities issued an "all-clear" early Saturday for Grand Cayman but cautioned residents to move about carefully. Power was out in some parts of the island and the streets of George Town were littered with tree branches.
Paloma's sustained winds increased to 140 miles per hour (225 km per hour) early on Saturday as the storm hurtled across the group's smaller islands, Cayman Brac, home to 1,800 people, and Little Cayman, with a population of about 100.
Gov. Stuart Jack asked that the British auxiliary ship Wave Ruler head straight to the smaller islands after the storm passes.
"Paloma is now an extremely dangerous category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale," the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.
Category 4 hurricanes can generate tidal surges up to 18 feet (5.5 metres) above normal and their winds can tear off the roofs and blow out the doors and windows of small homes.
Hurricane Ivan had 160 mph (260 kph) winds when it slammed the Caymans in 2004, causing extensive damage. But the islands and their solid structures are considered less vulnerable than other Caribbean islands to the fierce tropical storms that churn through between June and the end of November each year.
Paloma doused Honduras with heavy rains as it formed on Thursday, adding to misery in the impoverished Central American country where the United Nations estimates 70,000 people have been made homeless by recent storms.
It posed no threat to U.S. oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico.
In Cuba, Paloma was forecast to beat a northeast path through central Camaguey and eastern Las Tunas provinces. It was expected to weaken before hitting Cuba as a Category 3 storm, the forecasters said.
"I don't want to talk or hear about hurricanes, because they have already driven me crazy. First one came through from the north, now one is heading here from the south," Camaguey resident Carlos Martinez said. "I hope another doesn't fall from the sky."
Ailing former President Fidel Castro put damage from previous storms Ike and Gustav at $8 billion and blamed global warming for the number and power of the storms this year.
In a written statement published on Saturday, Castro rejected any aid from the United States before it was even offered, demanding instead that Washington lift economic sanctions tightened by U.S. President George W. Bush.
"Dignified conduct will again be needed if the head of the empire, who has been the chief instigator behind the genocidal blockade against our country, were to again offer pitiful aid. It will most surely be rejected," said Castro, who has not appeared in public since intestinal surgery in July 2006.
By 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), Paloma was about 130 miles (210 km) east-northeast of Grand Cayman Island and about 140 miles (225 km) southwest of Camaguey, Cuba, and moving east-northeast near 9 mph (14 kph), the hurricane centre said.
(Additional reporting by Marc Frank in Havana; writing by Jim Loney, editing by Vicki Allen |
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Paloma strengthened to a hurricane with winds near 120 km/h on Thursday as it churned toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba.
Forecasters say the storm is expected to continue strengthening as it moves north over the next day.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the Cayman Islands, where the storm could dump up to 20 centimetres of rain, said the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miami.
Paloma may make landfall in Cuba over the weekend, and Jamaica was warned to also monitor its progress, the centre said.
The Cayman Islands' top elected official, Kurt Tibbetts, urged residents not to wait until the last minute to prepare for the storm.
"History has taught us that we cannot afford complacency during hurricane season, for conditions can rapidly deteriorate," he said.
Grocery stores reported brisk business by noon on Thursday, and some people had started to board up their windows.
Officials toured low-lying regions, concerned that the onslaught of recent rains could lead to quicker flooding.
As a tropical storm earlier Thursday, Paloma dumped rain on the remote Nicaragua-Honduras border.
On Thursday evening, Paloma was located about 265 kilometres south of Grand Cayman and moving north at a speed of 19 km/h. A gradual turn to the northeast is expected late Friday. |
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