HURRICANE IKE

Hurricane Ike approaches Cuba Published: Sunday 07 September 2008 21:08 UTC

In Cuba hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated as Hurricane Ike approaches the island. Large parts of the country have been put on the highest alert. Ike is now a category 3 hurricane, and is expected to present a serious threat to the tourist resort of Varadero and the capital Havana. The Hurricane will then move on to the Gulf of Mexico. In the US state of Florida, a state of emergency has been declared as a precautionary measure. Hurricane Ike has already caused extensive devastation on the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos. On the island of Grand Turk in the east, 50 percent of the houses have reportedly been partly or entirely destroyed. Many tourists had already left the islands before the hurricane arrived. Tourists also left the nearby Bahamas.