Hurricane Gustav strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 storm today with winds of 145 miles per hour (230 km per hour) as it surged toward Cuba and the US, the National Hurricane Center said.
The eye of the storm has hit Cuba's Isla de Juventad (Isle of Youth) and is bearing down on the mainland with maximum winds of nearly 230km/h, US monitors say. Extensive flooding has hit the western tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio and Havana province.
Earlier today Gustav ripped across the Cayman Islands and closed in on Cuba's Isle of Youth before it was set to strike the Cuban mainland later in the day as a major hurricane.
Forecasters predicted Gustav would cross the Gulf of Mexico and hit central Louisiana on Tuesday with the same force that Hurricane Katrina delivered three years ago.
Any storm with winds of at least 111 mph is ranked "major" by the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center .
Gustav was expected to dump up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain as it crossed Cuba on its way to the gulf.
The storm's centre was 55 miles (85 km) southeast of the Isle of Youth and 185 miles (295 km) from Cuba's western tip, forecasters said Saturday morning. It was moving north-northwest at 12 mph.
Thousands of people moved to shelters where Cuban officials had food ready for distribution and medical teams on alert.
National flights in Cuba were cancelled ahead of the storm. In Havana, people boarded up windows while trucks with loudspeakers passed through the streets warning residents to seek protection from the storm.
The storm killed up to 77 people as it crossed the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. No deaths had yet been reported from the Caymans, a wealthy banking centre and British territory but power was out in much of the islands.
Gustav was an expansive storm with tropical storm-force winds extending 160 miles (260 km) from its eye.
A tropical storm warning was posted for the western Florida Keys, where up to 3 inches (8 cm) of rain were expected.
US emergency officials, mindful of the devastation caused by Katrina, warned that Gustav would bring a 15- to 30-foot (5-to-9 metre) storm surge along the Gulf Coast. Evacuations had begun in parts of four states in its potential path.
"This storm has the potential for being a very dangerous storm," said Bill Irwin, a program director with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Katrina was a monstrous Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting the coast near New Orleans as a Category 3 on August 29th, 2005.
Its massive storm surge broke through protective levees and flooded 80 per cent of the city. New Orleans degenerated into chaos as stranded storm victims waited days for government rescue.
About 1,500 people were killed on the US Gulf Coast and $80 billion in damages made Katrina the costliest US natural disaster.
Louisiana authorities warned residents to prepare to evacuate and arranged transportation for those without cars. Highways around New Orleans were jammed with people fleeing inland and hundreds of people lined up to board buses.
Federal officials say the levees are stronger now but still have gaps that make vulnerable some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Katrina's floods.
More than 11.5 million US residents could feel the storm's impact, the Census Bureau estimated. US President George W. Bush phoned the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas and pledged full federal support, the White House said.
Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed it three weeks later, also wrecked more than 100 oil platforms in the gulf, which now has about 4,000 production facilities offshore.
Energy companies evacuated offshore workers and shut production in preparation for the most serious Gulf storm since the 2005 hurricane season.
As Gustav swirled toward the gulf, forecasters kept an eye on another storm, Tropical Storm Hanna, in the Atlantic Ocean about 305 miles (490 km) east of Grand Turk Island.
It was moving west with top sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and could be near hurricane strength by Sunday, the hurricane center said. A tropical storm watch was issued for the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands.
Reuters