Related Article: Hurricane Ike Devastates Cuba, Texas In Danger Zone
Please DONATE and help people to rebuild their lives after Ike's destruction.
MAJOR NEWS UPDATE: HURRICANE IKE TURNS AWAY FROM FLORIDA KEYS
Some headline news about Hurricane Ike:
Hurricane Ike Smashes West Through CaribbeanBy MARC LACEY
The New York Times
Published: September 8, 2008
MIAMI - Hurricane Ike barreled west across central Cuba Monday after raising the death toll and destruction across the already beleaguered islands of the waterlogged Caribbean.
In Haiti, where the fourth-largest city, Gonaïves, remained underwater from Hurricane Gustav, rain fell Sunday and at least 10 more people died of drowning, according to reports from news services. By early Monday the number of people reported killed in Haiti just from the effects of Hurricane Ike reached at least 61, according to news services. The total of those killed in Haiti in the recent storms was in the hundreds.
In Cuba, where relief efforts from Hurricane Gustav were under way in the west, the government evacuated vulnerable communities as the new hurricane bore down on the island with heavy winds and rain that could total 10 inches.
In the Florida Keys, the authorities also ordered residents and tourists to leave as the outer reaches of the storm could be felt and on Monday a tropical storm warning was issued.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported Monday morning that Hurricane Ike, which had already weakened from a Category 4 storm to Category 3 Sunday after it hit Cuba, had weakened further to Category 2. But it was still considered a major hurricane with tremendous destructive force and it could still regain intensity.
Winds were gusting at around 105 miles per hour as it passed over central Cuba heading west toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Cuba's state-run television showed scenes from the city of Baracoa on the eastern tip of Cuba, where waves slammed into the sea wall and surged as high as nearby five-story apartment buildings before flooding the streets, Reuters reported.
Early Sunday, the hurricane had slammed into the southernmost islands of the Bahamas, where Janice McKinney, who ran a disaster shelter, told The Associated Press, "Oh my God, I can't describe it."
With winds up to 135 miles per hour, the storm also struck the Turks and Caicos Islands, where rain came in horizontally, according to witnesses, and more than 80 percent of the homes in some areas were reported damaged.
"They got hit really, really bad," The Associated Press quoted Michael Misick, the chief minister of the islands, as saying. "A lot of people have lost their houses, and we will have to see what we can do to accommodate them."
The effect of any rain at all on Haiti worried relief workers, who were struggling to reach hungry people cut off by floodwaters from a string of earlier storms. Officials opened an overflowing dam, further inundating residential and agricultural areas.
Meanwhile, a bridge collapsed, adding to the isolation of the suffering people of Gonaïves.
"What I saw in this city today is close to hell on earth," Hédi Annabi, the United Nations special representative to Haiti, said on Saturday in Gonaïves, where children were chasing trucks carrying food and shouting, "Hungry! Hungry!"
The airport in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, was closed for part of Sunday, and flights from Miami were canceled.
Some travelers who were lined up at the Miami airport toted huge duffel bags that they said contained supplies for ailing relatives.
Exactly which path Hurricane Ike would take next remained unclear as night fell Sunday, causing alarm in island after island.
The National Hurricane Center said Ike was expected to continue on a path that would turn toward the west-northwest on Monday, heading toward the Gulf Coast possibly by Wednesday.
The hurricane center said the storm was generating large swells at sea that could generate life-threatening rip currents along portions of coast in the southeastern United States, still recovering from Gustav, which made landfall on Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, and Tropical Storm Hanna, which hit the Carolinas on Saturday and by late Sunday was dumping rain on Canada.
Tourists, residents ordered out of Keys as Ike strengthensMIAMI, Florida
CNN
Published: September 8, 2008
Visitors to the Florida Keys were told to pack up and leave Saturday because of the threat from Hurricane Ike, swirling in the Caribbean.
"We're sorry to interrupt their vacations, but we need visitors to leave the Keys to ensure their safety," said Keys Mayor Mario Di Gennaro, who also chairs the islands' Tourism Council. "We do hope they will return and understand our concerns for their well-being."
A couple of hours after the orders were announced, Ike strengthened to an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm with winds near 135 mph, said the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.
At 11 p.m. ET Saturday, Ike's center was near the Turks and Caicos Islands, moving west-southwest at 15 mph.
Florida emergency management officials began evacuating visitors from Key West and the rest of the Keys on Saturday and planned to help residents leave Sunday.
The British government arranged extra flights to move visitors to Turks and Caicos, a British crown colony, out of harm's way before the Providenciales airport was forced to close about noon. Video Watch a webcam report from Turks and Caicos »
"The flights look impossible at the moment," Bahamian Patrick Munroe told The Associated Press at the Providenciales airport.
"As I watched the weather forecast, it looks really, really serious, and I think it's going to be devastating," he told AP.
"I don't remember ever seeing a mass exodus like this," Providenciales resident Tracy Paradis told AP. She intended to fly to Seattle, Washington, with her 19-month-old twins and return after the hurricane.
Cubans were being warned that Ike was a "true danger," and government officials began emergency preparations.
On Saturday, Cuban officials asked the U.S. to loosen the "ruthless and cruel" decades-old trade embargo on the Communist-ruled island in the wake of deadly flooding caused by powerful storms. Cuba was also hit hard by Hurricane Gustav.
"If the government of the United States is really willing to cooperate with the Cuban people in face of the tragedy of the hurricane, it is requested to allow the sale to Cuba of those materials considered indispensable and to suspend the restrictions that prevent U.S. companies from offering private commercial credits to our country for the purchase of food in the United States," said the statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"In all truth, the only correct and ethical action ... would be to eliminate totally and permanently the ruthless and cruel economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against our Motherland for almost half a century," the statement said.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement Friday, after government officials had offered to help Cuban flood victims.
"We do not believe that at this time it is necessary to loosen the restrictions on remittances and travel to Cuba to accomplish the objective of aiding the hurricane victims," the statement said.
In Monroe County, Florida, which includes the Keys, officials prepared for the storm by closing or planning to close schools and state, officials said in a written statement.
There will be no commercial flights to Key West starting Sunday night, and the airport won't be reopened until the storm passes, Key West Airport Director Peter Horton said. The suspension of flights also applies to the airport at Marathon Key, an hour's drive from Key West, he said.
General aviation flights, including private and charter planes, will be allowed until noon Sunday, he said.
Ike is expected to start turning toward the northwest Monday, a path that would take the storm over the Keys and into the southeast Gulf of Mexico.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist acknowledged that storm tracks are unpredictable, but he said Ike could be a serious threat by Tuesday. Video Watch Crist warn about 'a dangerous storm'
"We continue to watch with much concern the track of Hurricane Ike," Crist said Saturday. "Ike has grown rapidly into a dangerous storm that continues to move ... toward Florida."
Crist declared a state of emergency Friday, allowing officials to get supplies in place, such as drinking water and ready-to-eat meals, near vulnerable areas.
Fran Chipley of Key West, Florida, said she planned to stay put. She manages the front desk at historic Chelsea House, a bed and breakfast on the waterfront.
"Our plans today are business as usual ... then we're going to see what happens tomorrow," she said. "I know there's a mandatory evacuation today, but we are allowing our guests to stay if they choose to, which I think I know they're going to do, because it's beautiful."
Ike "looks like it's going south, and we're hoping for that," Chipley added.
She said she lives in a home that is on higher ground and survived Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. Wilma hit southeast Florida, did extensive damage on the East Coast and killed nearly 20 people in Florida, Mexico and Haiti.
The Caribbean took a beating from Tropical Storm Hanna, and Ike promised to add to the misery.
"What we saw [with Hanna] was pretty bad," Turks and Caicos vacationer Jonathan Cohen, of Queens, New York, told AP. "So for it to be two, three times worse, well, it's time to get out of here."
Forecasters predicted storm-surge flooding of 9 to 12 feet above normal tides and large and dangerous waves when Ike hits. These can be expected near and north of Ike's center.
UPDATE:
Did some searching through the web to find websites that are tracking Hurricane Ike. Hope it helps.
http://www.stormpulse.com/
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
Related Article: Hurricane Ike Devastates Cuba, Texas In Danger Zone
No comments:
Post a Comment