Ferocious Hurricane Ike threatens Cuba and Gulf

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike charged toward Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico as a ferocious Category 4 storm on Saturday, while Tropical Storm Hanna drenched the U.S. Atlantic coast after barrelling ashore in the Carolinas.

Ike's top sustained winds reached 135 miles per hour (215 kph), making it an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Ike alternately weakened and strengthened but was likely to remain a "major" hurricane of at least Category 3 as it hit Cuba, the forecasters said.

The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south Florida was not out of the line of fire, and visitors were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida Keys island chain starting on Saturday.

But computer models indicated Ike was likely to sweep into Cuba late on Sunday, presenting a severe threat to sugar cane fields, the tourist hotels of Varadero and the crumbling colonial buildings of Havana.

The storm might then curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, plowing toward an area that produces a quarter of domestic U.S. oil, and slamming ashore near New Orleans, which was swamped and traumatized by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

Katrina was a Category 3 when it struck near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, swamping the city and killing 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico early next week, the hurricane center said.