Yet Another Hurricane! Huricane Ivan.

[Littledragon]

This news should deserve a thread on its own.

Post any information or updates on yet another Hurricane, Ivan.

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) -- Hurricane Ivan intensified Thursday, heading straight for Jamaica and possibly Florida with 160 mph winds after it killed at least 16 people while pummeling Grenada, Barbados and other islands.

The most powerful hurricane to hit the Caribbean in 10 years damaged 90 percent of the homes in Grenada, killing 13 people there, and destroyed a 17th century stone prison that left criminals on the loose as looting erupted, officials said Wednesday.

Ivan is expected to reach Jamaica by Friday and Cuba by the weekend, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said.

Tourists and residents also were told to evacuate the Florida Keys because Ivan could hit the island chain by Sunday. It was the third evacuation ordered there in a month, following Hurricane Charley and hard on the heels of Hurricane Frances. (Full story)

Hurricane Ivan strengthened early Thursday to become a Category 5 on a scale of 5. It packed sustained winds of 160 mph with higher gusts as it passed north of the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Jamaican leader P.J. Patterson urged his people to pray.

"We have to prepare for the worst case scenario. Let us pray for God's care," Patterson said Wednesday night. "This is a time that we must demonstrate that we are indeed our brothers' and sisters' keeper."

Amy White, a 29-year-old American living in Jamaica, was planning to fly out of the island Thursday morning for her parents' house in Monroe, New Jersey.

"They got worried so they said they wanted me to come home," said White, a marketing manager for a clothing apparel company in Kingston. "I've never been in a hurricane like this before. I feel like it's fate so I'm gonna go."

British Navy assisting
The United States, meanwhile, declared Grenada a disaster area, allowing the immediate release of $50,000 for emergency relief.

"This is just a jump start," said spokesman Jose Fuentes of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington D.C., which has four members on the ground in Grenada. "As soon as the initial assessment is done we'll be sending more aid."

Fuentes said at least 13 storm-related deaths had been reported in Grenada. Police officials earlier had reported 12 deaths.

Details on the extent of the death and destruction in Grenada did not emerge until Wednesday because the storm cut all communications with the country of 100,000 people, and halted radio transmissions on the island.

"We are terribly devastated ... It's beyond imagination," Grenada's Prime Minister Keith Mitchell told his people and the world on Wednesday -- from aboard a British Royal Navy vessel that rushed to the rescue.

British Royal Navy crews from two ships said Thursday they have cleared the damaged and flooded airport runway outside Grenada's capital, St. George's, and that emergency relief flights were starting to arrive in the former colony.

"The air traffic control is still inoperative, so it's not like flight after flight is coming in," Navy spokesman Cmdr. Richard Buckland said from London.

Mitchell confirmed that the island's 17th century stone prison was "completely devastated" allowing convicts to escape, including politicians jailed for 20 years for killings in a 1983 left-wing palace coup that led the United States to invade.

Grenada is known as a major world producer of nutmeg and for the U.S. invasion that followed the coup, when American officials had determined Grenada's airport was going to become a joint Cuban-Soviet base. Cuba said it was helping build the airport for civilian use. Nineteen Americans died in the fighting and a disputed number of others that the United States put at 45 Grenadians and 24 Cubans.

Mitchell, whose own home was flattened, said he feared the death toll would rise and much of the country's agriculture had been destroyed, including the primary nutmeg crop.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said virtually every major building in St. George's has suffered structural damage and the United Nations was sending a disaster team. Grenada's once-quaint capital boasted English Georgian and French provincial buildings.

Looters out, police hindered
The Caribbean disaster response agency, based in Barbados, said its team arrived Wednesday afternoon along with U.S. aid and Pan American Health Organization officials.

"It looks like a landslide happened," said Nicole Organ, a 21-year-old veterinary student from Toronto at St. George's University, which overlooks the Grenadian capital. "There are all these colors coming down the mountainside -- sheets of metal, pieces of shacks, roofs came off in layers."

Students there, mostly Americans, were arming themselves with knives, sticks and pepper spray against looters, said Sonya Lazarevic, 36, from New York City. "We don't feel safe," she said on a bad telephone line.

When Organ wandered downtown after the hurricane passed, she said she saw bands of men carrying machetes looting a hardware store. She said she saw a bank with glass facade intact on her way down that was totally smashed when she returned.

Bedaau said every Grenadian police station was damaged, hindering efforts to control looting. He said police were trying to set up a temporary post at St. George's fish market, and that Trinidad and other Caribbean countries were sending troops.

Elsewhere, Ivan pulverized concrete homes into piles of rubble and tore away hundreds of landmark red zinc roofs.

Its howling winds and drenching rains also flooded parts of Venezuela's north coast, and a 32-year-old man died after battering waves engulfed a kiosk.

In Tobago, officials reported a 32-year-old pregnant woman died when a 40-foot palm tree fell into her home, pinning her to her bed.

A 75-year-old Canadian woman was found drowned in a canal swollen by flood waters in Barbados. Neighbors said the Toronto native, who had lived in Barbados for 30 years, braved the storm to search for her cat.

A meteorologist at the Miami center, Hugh Cobb, said that if Ivan hit Jamaica, it could be more destructive than Hurricane Gilbert, which was only Category 3 when it devastated the island in 1988.

Jamaica posted a hurricane watch Wednesday afternoon and ordered all schools closed and fishermen to pull their skiffs ashore and head for dry land. Haiti's southwest peninsula was on hurricane watch and the city of Les Cayes had already suffered hours of drenching downpours Wednesday night.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Ivan was centered about 360 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 60 miles and tropical storm-force winds another 160 miles. Ivan was moving west-northwest at 15 mph.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned it was riling large and dangerous battering waves and rain that could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.

Ivan became the fourth major hurricane of a busy Atlantic season Sunday.

 

[Amos Stevens]

Yeah I know someone that lives in South Carolina that wants to move to the desert about now

 

[Jules]

A friend of mine has a home that took a direct hit from Charly. Minimal damage. My father has a winter home that took a direct hit from Francis. ? damage. Other relatives have been getting dumped on in the rain and wind department but not sever. Now here comes Ivan. Oh boy.

 

[kickingbird]

Global warming, anyone? These are not your typical hurricanes. Check out the latest issue of National Geographic on Global Warning/Warming ... scary stuff.

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan nears, Jamaicans stay put.

(CNN) -- Few Jamaicans have sought the safety of the more than 1,000 shelters the Caribbean nation opened in anticipation of lethal Hurricane Ivan.

The Category 4 storm damaged or destroyed 90 percent of buildings in Grenada. Seventeen people were killed there, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA).

Four people were killed in the Dominican Republic and four in Venezuela. Altogether in its rampage across the Caribbean, at least 25 people have died, government sources said.

The Associated Press also reported a death in Barbados and one in Tobago, but CDERA could not confirm the Barbados death was storm-related.

Still, it seems most Jamaicans told to evacuate aren't heeding the order.

Officials told about 500,000 of the nation's 2.7 million people in low-lying areas to leave their homes. On Friday morning, 300 people were in shelters.

It is not known if some people moved in with relatives or friends in mountainous regions.

"We are concerned," said Barbara Carby, of Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management. "We called for the evacuation in the first place because we feared for their safety. But historically, people have been very reluctant to evacuate. Most people seem to prefer to ride things out where they live."

With just a few hours to go before the storm hits land, panic-buying created long lines for supplies in the Jamaican capital of Kingston.

Ivan's forecast path puts the storm over Jamaica by Friday night, and it is then expected to move toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba before possibly reaching the Florida Keys on Monday afternoon. (Florida prepares)

As of 2 p.m. Friday, Ivan was located about 85 miles (245 km) southeast of Kingston.

The storm is moving west-northwest at near 12 mph (19 kph), which would put the center in Jamaica about at 8 p.m. ET Friday.

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center of the storm and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles (280 km), meaning Ivan will start to affect Jamaica by midmorning.

In St. Georges, Grenada's capital, police used tear gas against suspected looters, according to the AP, which also said there were reports of entire families participating in the frenzy. (Troops patrol Grenada)

Troops from other Caribbean nations arrived to help restore order, the AP added.

Grenada's 90,000 residents have no water or power, and inmates from a prison flattened by the storm are at large, according to CDERA.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, said that while forecasters were looking at a dozen different possibilities for where the storm might strike in the United States, the most likely path would take it over the Florida Keys and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The storm's projected path has shifted slightly to the west, which means that it is now considered unlikely that Ivan would strike Florida's eastern coast, as Hurricane Frances did, Mayfield said.

By Thursday evening, the storm had lessened slightly in intensity, dropping from Category 5 to Category 4 after its winds decreased by about 10 mph. Mayfield said fluctuations are typical, and Ivan will retain much of its punch over the next three days.

The storm's ultimate direction could be determined by a low-pressure system expected to develop over the southern United States in the coming days, he said.

If the low develops over Alabama, Ivan would veer closer to Florida; if it develops over Arkansas, it would move farther west over open water toward the upper Gulf Coast, Mayfield said.

Not wanting to take any chances, emergency officials in the Keys -- which are linked to the mainland by a single road -- have ordered a mandatory, phased evacuation.

After seeing his state hit by Hurricane Frances during the weekend and Hurricane Charley on August 13, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that "this has been an incredible month."

"It is still too early to tell exactly where Hurricane Ivan is going to go, but the vast majority of the computer models tell us that in all likelihood, it's coming our way," Bush said. "That should give people concern."

 

[Littledragon]

KEY WEST, Florida (AP) -- Before Florida could catch a breath from a furious hurricane double-whammy, residents of the Keys were sent scurrying under new evacuation orders Friday as yet another powerful storm was taking aim at the state.

In South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations while shoppers snapped up hurricane supplies at home building stores and supermarkets in preparation for the possibility of a third strike in a month -- this time by Hurricane Ivan, which forecasters said could slam Florida's narrow island chain as early as Monday. The state has not been hit by three hurricanes in a single season since 1964.

Still busied with recovery efforts from hurricanes Frances and Charley, Gov. Jeb Bush said workers would redouble their around-the-clock efforts. "We're not worried about hurricane amnesia anymore," he said. "We're worried about hurricane anxiety."

In Marathon, Deborah Turner was packing her belongings charting plans Thursday for a long journey to Tallahassee.

"A gut feeling is telling me to get the heck out of dodge," Turner said in the parking lot of a supermarket. "I've seen hurricanes, lived through hurricanes, stayed through hurricanes -- but this feels different."

The National Hurricane Center said Ivan could hit the Keys as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 131 to 155 mph, as soon as late Monday, though there was still hope that the storm would move out into the Gulf of Mexico.

"The first one was wide left, the second one was wide right, and this one looks like it's coming straight up the middle," said Buzz Wagner, controller at the Crane Point Nature Center in Marathon, which bills itself as the heart of the Keys. "I'm kind of perversely looking forward to it."

Ivan carried maximum sustained winds near 145 mph, down slightly from 160 mph earlier Thursday. The powerful hurricane has already killed at least 23 people in the Caribbean and drew a bead on Jamaica, where officials urged a half million people to evacuate.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Ivan was about 225 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and heading west-northwest at 13 mph.

A steady line of traffic snaked along the northbound Overseas Highway through the Keys, signaling the frightening reality that Florida faces.

"We've all been through this trilogy. It's no fun, but you do what you've got to do," said Jane Fry, who loaded supplies into her car in a Walgreens parking lot, en route to stay with friends in Lakeland.

Tourists and residents of mobile homes were ordered to evacuate Thursday for the third time in a month. Shelters were being set up at Florida International University in Miami. Monroe County's 79,000 residents were to begin leaving on a staggered schedule beginning at 7 a.m. EDT.

The impending storm has led to calls from elected leaders for the public to support the American Red Cross and other charitable organizations. A Red Cross spokesman said the organization's relief effort for Charley was expected to cost about $50 million and work on Frances relief could cost twice that.

While about a million homes and businesses still lacked power in other parts of the state, concern for Ivan led to long lines at service stations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Many of the area's gas stations temporarily ran out during a similar demand as Frances bore down.

"We are in unprecedented, uncharted water where we are attempting to stage a recovery and prepare at the same time," said emergency operations spokesman Mark Esterly in Palm Beach County.

Bush said supplies in storage tanks were significantly higher than before Frances, and ships are daily bringing more fuel to ports in Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.

At a Deerfield Beach Home Depot, homeowners pushed pieces of plywood on carts, maneuvering around a full parking lot. Debbie Albeck, 47, of Boca Raton, had pulled in with a singular mission: "Three things: plywood, plywood, plywood."

"I'm prepared for the worst now," Albeck said.

Charley hammered southwest Florida on August 13 with winds of 145 mph, causing an estimated $6.8 billion in damage and 27 deaths. Frances hit the state's eastern coast early Sunday with 105 mph winds, leaving $2 billion to $4 billion in insured damage and at least 16 dead in the state.

After crossing the state, Frances moved into the Gulf of Mexico. It then hit the Florida Panhandle as a strong tropical storm before moving its laden rain bands northward into the eastern United States, where widespread flooding and several deaths have occurred.

 

[Storm]

Terrible devastation. They are calling it Ivan The Terrible.I hope loss of life is minimal. Makes our quaint weather look harmless for sure. And Florida will be hit again. I don't think i'd want to live there.

 

[yudansha]

Leftovers of Ivan might reach here, too...

... we've had the leftovers of Francis yesterday ... nothing as devastating as it was in Florida (although there was one fatal car accident due to it) but it was very wet ... the parking lot at our campus had about half a foot of water and I wasn't wearing galoshes D)

 

[Jules]

Come to the snowbelt of NY

Global warming, anyone? These are not your typical hurricanes. Check out the latest issue of National Geographic on Global Warning/Warming ... scary stuff.

If there is such a thing as global warming, why do I get buried in snow every winter?

 

[KATHYPURDOM]

My brother and sister-in-law live in Tampa Bay. I am getting real nervous about Ivan. My brother said that everyone there is taking off and just like the picture that LD has they want to sell their homes. Now who would buy their home now? It's a little to late to try to sell your home in Florida.

 

[yudansha]

"It's a little to late to try to sell your home in Florida."

LOL yeah it is - just like selling a house right before the volcano bursts right beside it ... but I think that sign was made more as a joke to relieve some of the stress that's been built up there.

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan Hits Jamaica!

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CNN) -- Powerful Hurricane Ivan brushed past Jamaica Saturday, lashing the island with heavy rain and strong winds.

At 8 a.m. ET, the storm was centered just off of the western tip of Jamaica, about 60 miles (95 km) south of Montego Bay.

Ivan had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) with higher gusts.

Hurricane force winds extended up to 45 miles (75 km), while tropical storm force winds stretched 175 miles (280 km). The storm is expected to dump 8 to 12 inches of rain in its wake and bring storm surge flood of 5 to 8 feet above normal.

Ahead of the storm, Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson declared a "period of public emergency" in a radio address to the nation.

Flooding was already reported in the hours before the most devastating part of the storm was to arrive. The main highway heading from the Jamaican capital to the eastern part of the country was under water.

About a half million coastal residents had been told earlier in the day to evacuate and head to higher ground.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami described Ivan as "an extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane that could increase in strength over the next 24 hours.

Ivan was moving to the west-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph), which would put it near the Cayman Islands in the next 24 hours.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Cuba.

A tropical storm warning also is in effect for parts of Cuba.

Journalist Kirk Abrahams said there were already reports of looting around Jamaica, and police had arrested four in the western part of the island near Montego Bay for attempting to loot several businesses.

Earlier, Cuban President Fidel Castro went on national television and warned residents to prepare for the storm.

"Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together," he said.

Castro added, "From beforehand, I am saying we will not accept any help from those who have applied economic measures against our country. Save the hypocrisy of offering aid to Cuba."

To the north in hurricane-weary Florida, where two major storms have caused billions of dollars in damage in the last month, residents of the Florida Keys packed their cars and boarded up their homes on Friday to escape Ivan.

Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm, saying the state faces "yet another catastrophic disaster."

"This is time to prepare and not to panic," he told residents.

Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley said nearly all of the businesses there had been boarded up and that residents were leaving en masse after seeing the damage that Charley and Frances wrought on other parts of Florida in recent weeks.

"The residents here in Key West saw what really happened and they took heed to the evacuation orders," he said.

The National Hurricane Center said Ivan's most likely path would bring it over the Keys and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Sunday or early Monday.

The hurricane center's director, Max Mayfield, said the Keys could get tropical storm force conditions beginning Sunday morning.

At least 25 people have been killed by Ivan so far, including 17 in Grenada. Four people were killed in Venezuela and four others were killed in the Dominican Republic from the storm.

 

[Littledragon]

Not A Home..

LOL yeah it is - just like selling a house right before the volcano bursts right beside it ... but I think that sign was made more as a joke to relieve some of the stress that's been built up there.

It wasn't a home but a motel.

 

[yudansha]

"It wasn't a home but a motel."

What difference does that make?

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan now a Category 5 hurricane!!!

CNN) -- Ivan strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane Saturday after brushing past Jamaica and battering the island with heavy rain and strong winds.

In a 3:30 p.m. special update, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said Ivan's maximum sustained winds have reached 165 mph (270 kph), with higher gusts.

In a previous advisory, the center said the storm was about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of the western tip of Jamaica. That placed it about 170 miles (273 kilometers) east-southeast of Grand Cayman Island, the NHC said.

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 45 miles (75 kilometers), while winds of tropical storm strength stretched 175 miles (280 kilometers). The storm is expected to dump 8 to 12 inches of rain in its wake and bring storm surge floods of 5 to 8 feet above normal.

The Saffir-Simpson scale ranks Hurricanes from Categories 1 to 5 according to their wind speed. A Category 5 hurricane has maximum sustained winds greater than 155 mph (249 kph).

A tropical storm's winds range from 39-73 mph (62-117 kph).

The storm had been drifting westward, but was expected to turn to between the west-northwest and northwest, and continue moving at 8 mph (13 kph)

Ahead of the storm, Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had declared a "period of public emergency" in a radio address to the nation.

About a half-million coastal residents had been told Friday to head to higher ground.

Journalist Kirk Abrahams said there were reports of looting around Jamaica, and police had arrested four in the western part of the island near Montego Bay for attempting to loot several businesses.

Earlier Friday, Cuban President Fidel Castro went on national television and warned residents to prepare for the storm.

"Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together," he said.

Castro added, "From beforehand, I am saying we will not accept any help from those who have applied economic measures against our country. Save the hypocrisy of offering aid to Cuba."

The United States has imposed sanctions against Cuba since 1963 in a bid to isolate Castro.

To the north in hurricane-weary Florida, where two hurricanes have caused billions of dollars in damages in the past month, residents of the Florida Keys packed their cars and boarded up their homes Friday to escape Ivan.

Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm, saying the state faces "yet another catastrophic disaster."

"This is time to prepare and not to panic," he told residents.

Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley said nearly all of the businesses there had been boarded up and that residents were leaving en masse after seeing the damage that Charley and Frances wrought on other parts of Florida in recent weeks.

"The residents here in Key West saw what really happened, and they took heed to the evacuation orders," he said.

The National Hurricane Center said Ivan's most likely path would bring it over the Keys and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Sunday or early Monday.

The hurricane center's director, Max Mayfield, said the Keys could experience tropical storm conditions beginning Sunday morning.

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan surges toward Cayman Islands.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Residents of the Cayman Islands and Cuba are bracing for Hurricane Ivan to make landfall Sunday with the potential to do catastrophic damage.

The government of the Caymans is taking every precaution as the storm rips through the Caribbean with sustained winds of 155 mph (249 kph) -- a strong Category 4 storm.

Ivan briefly reached Category 5 status late Saturday with winds topping 165 mph (266 kph).

"We are expecting hurricane force winds to be affecting us with the greatest intensity by about nine o'clock [Sunday] morning [10 a.m. ET]," Joan Scott-Campbell of the Caymans' National Hurricane Committee told CNN.

Scott-Campbell said the storm's powerful winds were knocking down power lines and blowing debris into the roadways late Saturday night.

Residents are "hunkering down," and the government is taking no chances, having closed airports and put mass evacuations into place.

All but a few diehard tourists have flown home, Cayman Islands government spokeswoman Patricia Embanks said.

The smallest of the three islands -- Little Cayman -- was completely evacuated after all 100 residents flew to Grand Cayman 90 miles away. Many of the 2,000 residents of Cayman Brach are also in shelters on the main island, she said.

The storm's path shifted westward after the evacuations, veering away from the smaller islands and more directly toward Grand Cayman.

Shelters on the main island are designed to withstand the strongest hurricane -- a Category 5 storm, Embanks said. Plywood is covering windows, and all businesses are shuttered.

At 8 a.m. ET, Ivan was moving west-northwest near 9 mph (15 kph), putting the eye of the hurricane over the Cayman Islands later on Sunday, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Its eye was 35 miles (55 km) south of Grand Cayman.

The hurricane described several scenarios for the path of Ivan once it reaches the Gulf of Mexico, including a strike at Florida.

Go. Jeb Bush urged Floridians to buy supplies and plan for a possible evacuation as Ivan moves closer.

Along with the winds, emergency officials in Florida are bracing for major flooding inland where the ground is already saturated in Hurricane Frances' wake.

While the eye of Ivan is expected to pass to the west of Florida Keys, concern about storm surges wiping out bridges that connect the islands to the north prompted federal and state authorities to make plans for military helicopters to create an "air bridge" for the relief effort.

The hurricane center has predicted coastal storm surges from Ivan of 20-25 feet (6-7 meters), and up to 12 inches of rain from the hurricane.

Ivan has been blamed for at least 36 deaths: 11 in Jamaica, 17 in Grenada, four in Venezuela and four in the Dominican Republic, according to officials.

Ivan was expected to head for the western end of Cuba early Monday.

President Fidel Castro went on television Saturday to warn residents to stock up on supplies and board up their homes.

"Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together," he said.

Overpopulated with 2.5 million people living in dilapidated housing that has been poorly maintained over the last 45 years, Havana is the worst place in Cuba for a hurricane, said CNN Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman.

With the Cuban capital almost directly in Ivan's predicted path, residents there are very nervous, she said.

The government has ordered everyone living above the fourth floor of any building to move to a lower level. Some buildings in Cuba are so old and fragile that they collapse during thunderstorms, Newman said.

Without hardware stores in each community, Cubans are unable to board up their windows with plywood. Even tape is hard to find, Newman said.

Unlike people in some other countries, Cubans usually take warnings to seek safer shelter seriously, she said.

Castro was quick to turn down any relief help from the United States.

"From beforehand, I am saying we will not accept any help from those who have applied economic measures against our country," he said. "Save the hypocrisy of offering aid to Cuba."

CNN's Karl Penhaul in Kingston and Lucia Newman in Havana contributed to this report

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan's Path.

Ivan's Path.

 

[Littledragon]

Hurricane Ivan back up to Category 5.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Ivan chugged toward far western Cuba as a Category 5 storm early Monday, scouring the Caribbean with 160 mph (260 kph) winds and leaving at least 62 people dead in its wake.

At the same time, the National Hurricane Center in Miami held out hope that the powerful storm may slip by the tip of the island nation.

"Depending on the exact motion ... the center could miss the western tip of Cuba and could even move near the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula during the next 24 hours," the hurricane center said.

With the approach of Ivan, the government of Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to Progreso, including the resort town of Cozumel.

Power outages were reported on Grand Cayman, where the storm's eye missed by about 30 miles, but flooding was so bad that amateur radio operators reported people standing on their roofs, the center said. (Full story)

At 8 a.m. ET, Ivan's eye was 110 miles (180 km) south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba and moving west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph), according to the hurricane center.

Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 105 miles (165 km) from the center, and tropical storm force winds extended up to 200 miles (325 km).

The latest projections indicated Ivan would reach far western Cuba by early Monday evening, and a chart of its most probable path showed the storm heading into the Gulf of Mexico and toward the Florida-Alabama border by Wednesday night.

The chart points Ivan well west of Key West and south Florida. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the Keys evacuated days ago, when forecasters were predicting the storm was headed in that direction. A tropical storm watch remains in effect for the Florida Keys from the Seven-Mile Bridge westward to the Dry Tortugas, the NHC said, but could be lowered later in the day.

A step ahead of the hurricane center, Florida Keys emergency management officials discontinued all evacuation orders associated with Hurricane Ivan early Monday and said residents who left the Keys due to the threat from the storm could return immediately. Tourism officials said visitors should hold off on returning to the Keys until Thursday.

While residents of the Florida Keys were relieved that the storm will apparently bypass them, those on the state's Panhandle were getting ready. (Full story)

In Jamaica, authorities raised the death toll from the storm to 17 late Sunday, including eight people believed to have been swept away by a tidal surge in a town on the island's south coast when the storm hit.

The deaths of 37 people in Grenada were blamed on Ivan, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency. Venezuela and the Dominican Republic each reported four deaths blamed on the storm.

On Grand Cayman, communications were hampered by widespread power outages, but officials reported horizontal rain and major flooding over the island.

"Reports from ham radio operators and the Cayman Meteorological Service indicate that power is out throughout the island," the NHC said. "Numerous buildings have lost their roofs... water up to two feet deep covers the airport runway ... and water as high as five feet is flowing through many homes."

A hurricane warning was in effect for Cuba, from Pinar del Rio to Ciego de Avila, including the Isle of Youth, and a hurricane watch remained in effect for the rest of the island. Mexican authorities issued a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning for the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, from Tulum to Progreso, including the resort town of Cozumel.

Cubans expressed anxiety about the potential destruction predicted to hit their island Monday afternoon or evening, and President Fidel Castro went on television Saturday to warn residents to stock up on supplies and board up their homes.

"Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together," he said.

The storm's westward shift takes the center of the storm farther from Havana, but the capital city was still in danger's way. Many of the city's 2.5 million residents live in dilapidated housing that has been poorly maintained over the last 45 years, and some buildings in Cuba are so fragile that they collapse during thunderstorms.

CNN's Karl Penhaul in Kingston and Lucia Newman in Havana contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

Ivan on course for Gulf Coast landfall!

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Storming into the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ivan cleared the western coast of Cuba early Tuesday and is expected to make landfall on the northern Gulf Coast of the United States in less than 48 hours.

Before leaving Cuba, Ivan -- now a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds -- knocked down power lines, uprooted trees and caused massive flooding.

Late Monday, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for a wide swath of the Gulf Coast, from Morgan City, Louisiana, to St. Marks, Florida, near Tallahassee. The watch area includes greater New Orleans.

The storm is expected to make landfall by Thursday morning, somewhere between New Orleans and Destin, Florida, and is expected to weaken in strength as it moves north across the Gulf.

In the tobacco-rich Pinar del Rio region of Cuba, CNN correspondent Lucia Newman reported strong winds and heavy rains, with many roads already washed out.

"The wind is going so quickly and so speedy, so fast it actually burns your face when it hits you," she said, standing out in the storm as the winds swirled and trees teetered.

As of 8 a.m. ET Tuesday, Ivan was about 115 miles northwest of the western tip of Cuba and 450 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving northwest near 9 mph with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and stronger gusts.

The storm is expected to weaken slightly in the next 24 hours as it begins to take a more northerly course.

Overnight, the storm moved out of the Category 5 range, but only barely -- Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale begins with winds of 156 mph.

With forecasters predicting a mid-week U.S. landfall, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told residents of the hurricane-weary state to take the necessary precautions, prepare for the impact and listen to authorities as evacuation orders go into effect. Mandatory evacuations for the Panhandle are expected to begin Tuesday.

"This is not the time to be defiant or to kind of let people know that you're a macho man. There are other ways to do that in life," Bush said. "This is a Category 5 storm. Trust me, it is a powerful, powerful force of nature that you shouldn't be messing with."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency for his city and strongly recommended that residents evacuate the city and its suburbs.

Nagin said there is a 22 percent chance that New Orleans will take a direct hit from Ivan when it makes landfall Thursday morning.

Terry Tullier, head of New Orleans' office of emergency preparedness, warned people to leave early so they don't get stuck in huge traffic jams.

Since 1900, only three Category 5 hurricanes have hit the United States, most recently Hurricane Andrew, which pounded the south Florida coast in 1992 killing 23 people and causing about $26 billion in damages.

The National Hurricane Center is projecting Ivan will remain a Category 4, or perhaps weaken to a Category 3, by the time it makes landfall.

The target area includes Florida's popular west coast destinations, Fort Walton Beach and Destin. That area also is home to the massive Eglin Air Force Base, which includes Air Force Special Operations headquarters at Hurlburt Field.

However, forecasters caution the storm could track slightly to the west, making landfall closer to Mobile, Alabama, or New Orleans.

"I think the most important thing is we are dealing with a major hurricane getting ready to make a landfall," said Hector Guerrero, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center.

No matter where the landfall occurs, officials said, a wide swath of the Gulf of Mexico coast will be impacted because of the storm's massive size. Hurricane force winds extend outward 100 miles and tropical storm force winds stretch 225 miles.

As of 8 a.m. ET, a hurricane warning remained in effect for the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio and Havana, as well as the city of Havana and the Isle of Youth. A hurricane warning also was in effect for the northeastern Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, from Tulum to Progreso, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for the Florida Keys.

At least 1.5 million Cubans evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm, and Cuban President Fidel Castro Monday toured parts of western Cuba, which was ravaged by Hurricane Charley a month ago.

Castro reiterated that his island nation will not accept any hurricane aid from the United States or other countries that "have imposed economic sanctions against Cuba."

"The United States can save itself the hypocrisy of trying to help Cuba out in this situation," he said.

Forecasters had said the storm would dump as much as 8 to 12 inches of rain on the island and bring storm surge flooding of 20 to 25 feet.

The storm has left more than 60 dead in its wake as it barreled across Jamaica, Grenada and other islands. Grenada was the hardest hit, reporting 37 people killed by the storm.

With Ivan heading toward the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies evacuated offshore oil rigs, stopping production of nearly 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

The military also began making preparations with Navy and Air Force moving equipment away from the storm's path, including 300 Navy aircraft moved from Naval Air Station Pensacola and Whiting Field in the Florida Panhandle.

Power outages were reported on Grand Cayman, which the storm's eye missed by about 30 miles Sunday. The hurricane center said ham radio operators were reporting flooding so bad that people had to stand on their roofs. (Full story)

CNN's Lucia Newman in Pinar del Rio contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

Hurricane Ivan bashed the coasts of Alabama!

MOBILE, Alabama (CNN) -- Hurricane Ivan bashed the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday with 135 mph winds and pounding waves.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting the eye of Ivan will make landfall early Thursday -- around 4 a.m. ET -- across Mobile Bay in Alabama. Forecasters believe the hurricane may weaken slightly, but still will be a dangerous Category 3 storm when it hits land.

Currently, Ivan is a Category 4 (131-155 mph winds) on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Forecasters said swells in the center of the storm have measured 30 feet.

Chad Myers, CNN meteorologist, said the center of Ivan may have turned toward Mobile Bay. Even so, "New Orleans can't rest easy," he said.

If the storm hits Mobile as predicted, 12 blocks of the city's downtown, starting at the water's edge, could be under water, Myers said.

Nearly 2 million coastal residents have been ordered to evacuate, state officials said, and a majority of them have already left their homes.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that President Bush spoke Wednesday morning to the governors of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida about Ivan and federal preparations for aid.

Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said that Ivan is "the size of Frances but (with) the impact of Charley," comparing the latest storm to the other two that have plowed through the Sunshine State since the beginning of September.

She urged residents in the Panhandle to leave immediately if they haven't already.

Craig Fugate, the director of Florida's division of the Emergency Management Agency, said Ivan will bring "significant to catastrophic" rain, wind, flooding and tornados to the state's Gulf coast.

"It's going to bring every bad thing you can get out of a hurricane," he said.

In Louisiana, Dr. Walter Maestri, director of the Jefferson Parish's emergency management office predicted as many as 400,000 people would remain in New Orleans and surrounding areas "because the evacuation process is taking as long as 10 to 12 hours."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he was more optimistic because Ivan had taken a short-term turn to the north, away from his city.

However, Nagin added that residents cannot be complacent, because they still will feel the effects of the storm -- starting Wednesday afternoon.

The city has imposed a curfew starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday, one city official said.

The city also has banned price gouging. The official said some gas stations were charging $10 a gallon, which he called "ridiculous."

Nagin said people determined to stay in their homes should have access to a second floor, and be able to hack through the roof in case the water rises that far.

New Orleans' usual party spots -- Bourbon Street among them -- were virtually empty as tourists and residents headed to higher ground. (Full story)

Moving slowly north
At 2 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center reported Ivan was centered 170 miles south of the Alabama coastline. The storm was moving north about 14 mph; that movement is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 105 miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds stretched 290 miles outward.

Hurricane warnings were posted from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Apalachicola, Florida, and a hurricane watch extended westward from Grand Isle to Morgan City, Louisiana.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to west of Grand Isle and from east of Apalachicola to Yankeetown, Florida.

"This is not only a very, very powerful hurricane, but it's a very large hurricane," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "It's indeed going to impact a very large area."

NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center near Biloxi has been opened as a shelter, but Harper said authorities have advised residents "not to stay in shelters here unless we absolutely have to."

Dozens of people missing
Ivan skirted Cuba late Monday as a Category 5 storm -- the top rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale -- with winds above 156 mph. The storm killed more than 60 people on the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Grenada over the weekend, and authorities in the Cayman Islands said dozens remain unaccounted for.

Many homes on Grand Cayman have been flooded or have lost their roofs, and the islands remained under a state of emergency and a curfew Tuesday, two days after the storm hit, Department of Tourism spokeswoman Leanne Drago said. (Cayman Islands begin cleanup)

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies evacuated 60 of 117 off-shore oil rigs and about three-quarters of the 764 manned oil platforms. Johnnie Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service, told CNN those shutdowns affect 73 percent of the normal production in the gulf.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which handles about 1 million barrels of crude oil each day, also shut down as the storm approached. The figure represents about 16 percent of the U.S. daily consumption.

The Navy and Air Force moved equipment away from the storm's path, including 300 Navy aircraft moved from Naval Air Station Pensacola and Whiting Field in the Florida Panhandle.

Tropical Storm Jeanne over Puerto Rico
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Jeanne slowly was making landfall over Puerto Rico. A hurricane warning remains in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic.

Jeanne, about 25 miles south-southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, still is just below hurricane strength. Its winds are at 70 mph and forecasters said stronger winds were likely over higher elevations.

The National Weather Service predicted Jeanne could become a hurricane Wednesday evening or Thursday. A storm becomes a Category 1 hurricane once its winds reach 74 mph.

CNN's David Mattingly, Kathleen Koch, Susan Candiotti and Producer Paul Courson contributed to this report