Hurricane Charley has become the most destructive tropical storm to hit Cuba's western Havana province since 1915, killing four people, damaging 11,000 homes and knocking down hundreds of power line polls.

Another 5,000 homes were damaged in the rest of Cuba and the western province of Pinar del Rio lost power.

Travelling south to north, the hurricane cut its destructive swath through Havana Province in just two hours on Friday.

The storm damaged 502 schools and 22 health centres in Pinar del Rio and Havana provinces, officials said.

Residents in the capital, Havana, were still without power, which authorities were promising to restore to 80 per cent of the city today.

National and international flights resumed at Havana's main airport, despite damage to the control tower.

After Cuba, Hurricane Charley hit south-western Florida, destroying thousands of homes, leaving more than 1 million people without power and hundreds of thousands without water.

--AFP