Hurricane Gustav gains strength on way to Cuba
August 31, 2008 00:00:00
GEORGE TOWN, (Cayman Islands) Aug 30 (Agencies): Gustav rapidly gained power early Saturday and verged on becoming a fearsome Category 3 hurricane as it neared western Cuba on a track to hit the US Gulf Coast three years after Hurricane Katrina.
Gustav, which killed 71 people in the Caribbean, rolled over the Cayman Islands Friday with fierce winds that tore down trees and power lines. It was expected to cross Cuba's cigar country Saturday and head into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday.
Gustav first struck Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, the smaller easternmost "Sister Islands" in the chain. Storm surge and heavy rains flooded the streets.
More than 1,100 people were in government shelters in the three islands as high waves and heavy winds battered the chain, the National Emergency Operations Center said in a statement. No injuries were reported.
"We're just trying to wait it out," said Juliana O'Connor-Connolly, who represents the islands in the Cayman legislature, by cell phone from the kitchen of her farm on Cayman Brac.
She said about 40 people were riding out the storm in her home, which at 65 feet (20 meters) elevation is safe from flooding but still vulnerable to winds that ripped out hundreds of fruit trees on the farm.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm grew into a Category 2 hurricane early Saturday with maximum winds of 100 mph.
By 5 a.m. EDT Saturday, Gustav's top sustained winds were near 110 mph, just short of the threshold for the Category 3 status that defines a major hurricane. The storm's eye was about 255 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba and about 135 miles southeast of Cuba's isle of Youth. It was moving northwest near 12 mph.
