CAYMAN ISLANDS: One of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, Hurricane Ivan dealt a heavy blow to the tiny Cayman Islands, a low-lying British colony and offshore financial centre of 45,000 people where it ripped off roofs and sent sea water surging into houses and apartments well inland.
World oil prices climbed as companies operating along the US Gulf of Mexico coast, home to about a quarter of US oil and gas output, braced for disruptions. A host of companies shut production or removed workers from offshore rigs.
Cuba, with a population of 11 million, evacuated 1.3 million people and battened down for a rare and deadly Category 5 hurricane that was near the western tip of the island.
Forecasters warned of a possible 20 to 25-foot storm surge in Cuba, east of Hurricane Ivan's centre.The death toll rose to 68 as Haiti reported three storm-related deaths and the Pan American Health Organisation said 37 people had died in Grenada, up from 19. Nineteen were killed in Jamaica, four in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic and one in Tobago.
On a more westerly path than predicted, the hurricane's powerful core could pass through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba's western tip and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
It spared Cuba's sugar, nickel, citrus and tourism industries and its current track also put Havana, which accounts for 45 per cent of the country's GDP, in less danger.
"It's going through the channel. That's very courteous. I'm more optimistic now, and glad the country has been spared great expenses," President Fidel Castro said on a tour of Pinar del Rio in western Cuba as winds downed trees and traffic lights.
Gusts of hurricane-force winds began to pummel parts of the province yesterday afternoon, and officials reported the sea had surged 35 yards inland at the fishing village of Cortes.
The strengthening winds ripped off corrugated iron roofing in nearby La Coloma.
Mexico evacuated 10,000 tourists and residents from flood-prone areas near Cancun as winds picked up and choppy seas grounded ferry boats.
Almost all 2,500 residents of Isla Mujeres island escaped to shore. Mexico's main oil exporting ports remained open despite cloudy conditions, the Transportation Ministry said.
On Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands, buildings were flooded, an airport runway was submerged and roofs were torn off when Hurricane Ivan roared past on Sunday, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
All three islands were without electricity, nearly every house on the island lost all or part of its roof and cars and boats were swept away by flood waters.
While damage was extensive on Jamaica, the island of 2.7 million people appeared to have escaped the havoc wrought on Tuesday on the tiny spice island of Grenada, where 90 per cent of buildings were flattened or badly damaged. - (Reuters)