Michelle strengthens and moves toward Cuba
Hurricane Michelle gathered strength for a strike on Cuba as it crept across the western Caribbean today on a course that could also take it to Florida or the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, emergency crews in Central America and Jamaica were digging out after five days of rain and floods that killed 12 people, left 26 missing and forced more than 115,000 to flee their homes.
At 11am today, Michelle had sustained winds of up to 130 mph and was centred about 205 miles south of the western tip of Cuba, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami reported.
Already listed as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane, Michelle was likely to strengthen to a Category 4 hurricane capable of extensive damage as it moved north-northwest at 5 mph.
Hurricanes Andrew, which devastated southern Florida in 1992, and Hugo, which ravaged the southeastern US in 1989, were both Category 4 storms.
The hurricane centre said that on its current course, Michelle’s centre could hit western Cuba by late today or early tomorrow and approach Florida on Monday morning.
A strike on Cuba ‘‘is almost a dead certainty’’, said hurricane centre forecaster James Franklin. ‘‘It would be hard to miss.’’
Cuba issued a hurricane warning for most of its western provinces. Officials there evacuated 35,500 students from educational camps in low-lying areas, and 500 tourists from the beach resorts of Cayo Coco and Varadero.
Michelle ‘‘truly is a threat to our country’’, said Jose Rubiera, head of the tracking centre for the Meteorological Institute of Cuba.
Forecasters said Michelle could also take an eastern turn upon reaching Cuba, putting it on a course toward Florida.
‘‘We are looking at a range of possible paths, anywhere from Naples (Florida) to central Cuba,’’ Mr Franklin said.
In Honduras, rescuers finally reached tens of thousands left homeless by floods, where authorities reported that the storm had killed six people, left 14 more missing and forced 100,000 others to flee their homes in search of higher ground.
As flood waters began receding in the north, relief workers reached 100 villages cut off by the flooding in Gracias a Dios province near the Nicaraguan border.
In Nicaragua, officials put the storm’s death toll at four. Twelve people remain missing and 15,000 people were forced from their homes.
In Jamaica, where two men died in floods and mudslides, helicopters filled with food and aid workers reached 13 villages cut off by flooding on the island’s north east coast.
