Ivan strikes western Cuba, swamps at least 2 towns
MIAMI - (KRT) - Hurricane Ivan bombarded western Cuba with the full fury of a Category 5 killer storm Monday night, damaging hundreds of homes, crashing 15-foot waves into the Isle of Youth and swamping at least two towns.
"The situation is bad, very, very, bad," a woman huddled in her home in Pinar del Rio province told The Miami Herald by telephone Monday night. Wind howled in the background. "We've been told it's going to get a lot worse. We are in a difficult situation."
After arousing hope that its savage inner core would bypass Cuba, Ivan veered closer, brushing the island's western tip with the eye wall's most catastrophic wind and rain.
Still, it appeared that the nation was granted a reprieve and would not be savaged. Westernmost Cuba is sparsely populated, and Havana and areas east of it were not expected to experience hurricane-force winds.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, who traveled Monday to Pinar del Rio, praised Ivan's "courteous attitude." He said Cuba would "avoid damage and expenses that otherwise would have been incurred" if the core had bisected the main island.
At the same time, though, a wide region between Havana and the western tip of Cuba remained in danger Monday night. Ivan was a huge storm, and its effects were sprawling and perilous.
"We're worried and frightened," one resident of the Isle of Youth told The Herald by telephone.
The hurricane seemed to mushroom in size Monday even as it maintained its deadly power. It was so vast that its clouds simultaneously covered Cuba, the Florida Keys, South Florida, Central Florida and portions of the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize and Honduras.
And it was heading to Florida. Forecasters prepared to post hurricane watches on the Florida Panhandle and elsewhere along the upper Gulf Coast.
Ivan has killed at least 68 people during its slow trek through the Caribbean, and it is the second hurricane in a month to hit Cuba. Hurricane Charley left five dead in Cuba and $1 billion in damage.
No casualty reports were immediately available Monday as Cuba again absorbed a hurricane's torrential rain, shrieking wind and a rushing, 20-foot storm surge.
The surge, a wall of water that precedes the eye wall, reportedly covered the fishing towns of La Coloma and Cortes in the province of Pinar del Rio. The populations of both towns had been evacuated and much of the province was flooded.
"They're reporting a lot of water," said Osvaldo Pla, an amateur radio operator for Brothers to the Rescue in Miami, who monitored ham radio transmissions from Cuba.
An amateur radio operator in Cuba reported that phone and power lines were down in Pinar del Rio province and that the storm surge invaded three city blocks along the southern coast.
A ham radio report from Isabel Rubio, a small town in westernmost Pinar del Rio, reported that the meteorological station in nearby Sandino was damaged.
"Now telephone poles are going down," the report said. "No electricity in the west Pinar del Rio area is available."
Other amateur radio reported "hundreds of trees" down throughout much of western Pinar del Rio.
Authorities there said 130,000 of the province's 1.3 million people had been evacuated from their homes into schools, government buildings, hotels and neighbors" houses.
A woman who was riding out the storm with her 2-year-old daughter and two aunts told The Herald in a telephone interview she had boarded up her windows with plywood handed out by the government.
Rain had not stopped since early Monday morning, intensifying as the day wore on, she said.
"We"re a little bored, but that is not important," she said. "We've seen what's happened elsewhere in the Caribbean where Ivan struck, and we're intent on saving lives at all costs."
Earlier in the day, powerful winds and heavy rainfall knocked out electricity in some parts of the Isle of Youth, flooded streets in many areas and washed out part of a highway on the eastern edge of the island.
Havana reported only heavy rains and slight breezes, and Cuban provinces to the east barely felt the storm.
"It's not coming here," said one confident man sitting with his family in their apartment doorway in central Havana. "We got lucky."
In Havana and Matanzas, where people had been expecting the worst for days, a cautious sense of relief prevailed Monday night.
"Imagine how relieved we feel," a Matanzas woman told The Herald by telephone. "Our lives are unlucky enough. We were expecting the worst since the beginning, and I have been glued to the radio, listening to all the bulletins."
There was one remaining fear: more blackouts than usual.
"We have to take advantage of the daylight hours," said another Matanzas woman, cooking a dinner of eggs and rice earlier than usual, just in case. "It's usually pretty bad anyway, but today we expected it to be worse."
While Castro seemed pleased with Ivan's path, other officials took to the airwaves to remind residents of the storm's dangers.
"Don't take any unnecessary risks," civil defense Lt. Col. Domingo Carretero told state television. "Don't go outside. Don't go on your balconies. Don't cross rivers that are swelling. Don't touch severed electricity cables."
And Jose Rubiera, Cuba's chief meteorologist, said Ivan wasn't through with Cuba. Western provinces, plus other areas, still faced great danger, he said.
"No one should think that it is gone, that we are safe - that is not true," Rubiera said in a broadcast.
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