Sixth-most powerful Atlantic storm causes coastal flooding

By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

PLAYA BAYLÉN, Cuba – Hurricane Ivan brushed the western tip of Cuba on Monday night, engulfing half the island in torrents of rain and punishing winds before churning on toward the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The hurricane delivered a glancing blow to Guanahacabibes Peninsula on the extreme western tip of Cuba at 6:30 p.m. Monday, said Jose Rubiera, Cuba's chief hurricane forecaster. The peninsula is an ecological treasure, with 172 species of birds, virgin beaches and about 150 archaeological sites.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, but Cubans remained on edge as the rare Category 5 hurricane toppled power lines and trees and triggered coastal flooding.

At 10 p.m. Dallas time, Ivan was about 40 miles west-northwest of western Cuba.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted that the storm would slip through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico before striking the Florida Panhandle, Louisiana or Mississippi as early as Wednesday.

Earlier Monday, forecasters in Cuba told the populace that the hurricane was extremely dangerous and unpredictable.

The storm, the most powerful hurricane to hit Cuba in 50 years, was packing 160-mph winds and 195-mph gusts on Monday night.

"We're at the mercy of Mother Nature," Juan Francisco Roque, 38, a lifeguard at Playa Baylén, a beach settlement on the southwestern coast, said earlier Monday. "There's not much we can do if Ivan really gets mean."

Said Luis Garcia, 41, an official in the nearby village of Boca de Galafre: "We've evacuated 1,080 people. We've done all we can. Now we wait."

In all, about 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated from their homes in the past 36 hours, most of them seeking shelter in the homes of friends, neighbors and relatives.

Since last week, the storm has killed at least 68 people, most of them in Grenada and Jamaica.

In Cuba, the province of Pinar del Rio – home to most of Cuba's tobacco crops – was soaked by sheets of rain. The region was ravaged by hurricanes Lili and Isidore over an 11-day period in September 2002.

"I'm sure we'll lose some tobacco," farmer Francisco Daniel Castillo, 35, said Monday morning. "But we'll get through this. We'll survive."

Planting season doesn't begin until the end of October, and remnants of January's harvest are protected in curing houses, Cuba's top grower, Alejandro Robaina, told The Associated Press.

Waves along the beach in Pinar del Rio crashed into and flooded homes on Monday.

"If the sea comes any closer, we're going to have to get out of here," Raul Garcia, 32, shouted as thunderous waters surged across the beach at Playa Baylén. A few miles away, a convoy of about 20 cars and trucks screamed down the middle of a narrow asphalt road, forcing other vehicles onto the shoulder.

It was Fidel Castro, who rode in one of four black Mercedes-Benz automobiles that raced toward the coastline.

The Cuban president was touring areas expected to take the brunt of the storm.

"No matter what the challenge is, Fidel's always on the front lines," said Deynnis Abreu, 38, a restaurant manager who works nearby. "He's not afraid. But we worry about him. I mean, he's 78 years old. He tells us to make sure no one gets killed when there's a hurricane, then look what he does – he risks his own life."

Later, Mr. Castro – mindful that Hurricane Charley had killed at least four people in Cuba and caused more than $1 billion in damages on his birthday, Aug. 13 – said he was relieved that Ivan had been a storm with a "good attitude."