GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – Hurricane Ivan battered the Cayman Islands with ferocious 150-mph winds Sunday, flooding homes, ripping off roofs and toppling trees three stories tall as its powerful eye thundered past just offshore.
Ivan has killed at least 65 people across the Caribbean and was expected to strike western Cuba today. More than 1 million Cubans were evacuated from their homes.
The hurricane, which grew to a Category 5 with 165 mph winds Saturday, lost strength before tearing into the wealthy Cayman Islands chain, a popular scuba diving destination and banking center.
Ivan was projected to dump up to a foot of rain in the Caymans, possibly causing flash floods and mud slides, the U.S. Hurricane Center said.
But as it bore down on Cuba on Sunday night, Ivan strengthened to the most dangerous type, Category 5, defined as a hurricane having at least 156 mph winds.
High winds prevented Cayman Island officials from assessing damage immediately. But Donnie Ebanks, deputy chairman of the British territory’s National Hurricane Committee, estimated that as many as half of Grand Cayman’s 15,000 homes were damaged.
The only whooshing sound Hurricane Ivan stirred in the Keys and South Florida on Sunday was a sigh of relief from residents no longer fearful the storm would make a direct hit.
The storm, initially predicted to brush the Florida Keys, appeared Sunday night to be on a track to hit the Florida Panhandle. Mexico issued a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning for the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula.
Uncertainty about the hurricane’s course earlier Sunday prompted Florida officials to keep an evacuation order in place for the island chain’s 79,000 residents.
The U.S. Hurricane Center said ham radio operators on Grand Cayman reported that people were standing on the roofs of homes because of storm surges of up to 8 feet above normal tide levels. Emergency officials said residents from all parts of the island were reporting blown-off roofs and flooded homes.
In Cuba, the threatened area includes densely populated Havana, where traffic was light Sunday morning as most took shelter. About 1.3 million people across the island of 11.2 million were evacuated, with most seeking refuge with relatives.
In western Cuba, dozens of families in the coastal town of La Coloma bundled up clothes, medicine, furniture and television sets before boarding buses to shelters.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Javier, with swinds of 75 mph, was building up strength Sunday far off the Pacific coast.
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