BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 Huge swells driven by Hurricane Irene pounded Havana Friday as the Cuban
 government reported two people dead, two missing, 1,589 homes damaged and
 one-third of the capital without electricity in the storm's wake.

 Civil defense officials warned of destructive storm surges from the beach resort of
 Varadero, east of Havana, to the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio as Irene
 punched northward into Florida.

 Swells crashing onshore Friday sent 50-foot geysers into the air along Havana's
 seaside Malecon drive and flooded low-lying areas beyond it, forcing several
 hundred people from their homes, witnesses said.

 Cuba's government-run radio and television reported that one-third of the capital
 remained without electricity, and 78,300 men, women and children were still out
 of their homes, from among 160,000 evacuated across the country Thursday.

 Two Havana residents died in accidental electrocutions and one was missing in
 the wake of Irene's rain-laden passage over western Cuba. Another man from
 Matanzas province was missing, the Cuban media reported.

 Irene toppled 35 already dilapidated houses and damaged another 750 in Havana,
 the reports said, and damaged some 800 other dwellings while toppling another
 25 around the rest of the island.

 Government reports indicated that damage to agriculture is extensive but not
 disastrous, with 1 million banana and plantain trees knocked down. Half the
 public transport system remained paralyzed, the radio reported.

 Havana's only two milk processing plants were among the 15 factories in the
 capital knocked out of production by Irene's rain and winds and the power
 outages, the Cuban media reported.

 Havana Mayor Conrado Martinez reported some 300 trees were knocked down,
 and 13,000 residents of the capital, which has a population of 2 million, were
 evacuated during the storm Thursday.

 President Fidel Castro, 73, appeared to take personal control of civil defense
 operations as Irene approached Thursday, rushing to Pinar del Rio to check on
 preparations and relaying weather forecasts on national television.

 ``There is a spirit of solidarity and cooperation like never before, he said in one TV
 appearance.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald