Hurricane Lili slammed into southwestern Cuba today, after the government rushed to evacuate more than half a million people from low-lying areas.
The Cuban Meteorological Service reported that the hurricane made landfall on Cabo Frances, in western Cuba, at 3.40 p.m. GMT packing winds of 150 kilometers an hour.
Lili continued its march in a west-northwest direction across western Cuba towards the US Gulf coast, moving at 20 kilometers per hour, weather officials said.
The hurricane is expected to cross a 50 kilometer wide swath of land that Civil Defense officials have cleared of people and remain two hours over mainland Cuba, officials said.
In Havana intermittent heavy showers and winds of up to 50 kilometers are expected.
Earlier Lili ripped across the Isle of Youth - an island in the Cuban archipelago southwest of the mainland -- with winds of up to 182 kilometers an hour.
Some 6,000 people were evacuated from the Isle of Youth, which has a population of around 80,000, local media reported.
The island has been isolated with no phone service since yesterday, but amateur ham radio operators offer reports to Cuban broadcast media.
"This is worse than (hurricanes) Isidore and Michelle", one ham operator told a Cuban radio station.
AFP