Michelle Barrels Through Cuba
HAVANA (AP) - Hurricane Michelle rolled toward the Bahamas and away from Florida on Monday after roaring across Cuba, which evacuated 750,000 people and shut down power for much of the island.
After hitting Cuba with 130 mph winds Saturday, a much-diminished Michelle was expected to strike the Bahamas capital of Nassau Sunday morning. The storm left 12 dead in Honduras, Nicaragua and Jamaica earlier last week.
Conditions in Cuba were unclear because communications were nearly completely knocked out, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Early Monday, more than half of the country - from Pinar del Rio province in the west to Ciego de Avila - remained without power, Radio Rebelde reported.
Electrical company workers began driving around Havana at sunrise, checking damage and repairing fallen lines. Company officials told the radio station they hoped electricity would be restored to the capital later Monday.
Rain and surging ocean water shut down Havana's Malecon coastal highway and extended several blocks into the residential neighborhood of Vedado. Many residents were ordered out of the neighborhood two days before the storm arrived.
By Monday morning the rain had stopped in most of Cuba, but there were reports of heavy downpowers in Cuba's easternmost provinces of Santiago and Guantanamo as Michelle moved to the northeast.
Michelle's sustained winds dropped to 80 mph by midmorning and were expected to keep declining. The hurricane warning for all of the Florida Keys was replaced by a tropical storm warning, although concerns of coastal flooding remained.
``It looks like Michelle is just giving us a fringe effect; I would not expect any significant damage,'' said Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
In Nassau, most businesses had put up plywood and metal shutters. A few stores stayed open early Sunday, and shoppers scrambled for water, batteries and canned food.
Flights to Andros Island, the first Bahamian island in Michelle's projected path, were canceled, and some families began moving to government shelters.
On Sunday, Cuban leader Fidel Castro called an impromptu news conference in Havana, saying 750,000 of the country's 11 million people had been evacuated to shelters, friends' homes or other safe havens.
He also noted that Michelle entered Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, on the southern Zapata Peninsula, comparing the hurricane to the invasion by a CIA-funded army of exiles that landed there in a botched attempt to overthrow him 40 years ago.
``Our people are well organized, they have experience. The greatest success will be to keep the number of victims low,'' he said.
Evacuations are mandatory in Cuba's civil defense system, which was designed during the Cold War to repel military attacks.
The government shut off power across the western half of the island shortly after the storm made landfall, some 70 miles southeast of Havana.
Michelle also created an 18-foot storm surge on the outlying island of Cayo Largo on Cuba's south coast Sunday, but there was no immediate word on what damage it caused.
The storm battered central-western Cuba during the day with sustained winds of 125 mph, the hurricane center said. Ten to 20 inches of rain fell in four days before ending late Saturday.
In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush had declared a state of emergency Saturday. A mandatory evacuation order was issued for all of the Florida Keys on Sunday, although some residents were allowed to return Monday.
The chain of some 40 islands, stretching 128 miles, has more than 80,000 permanent residents, plus visitors. The keys are connected by highway bridges, but only two spans connect the first island, Key Largo, to the mainland.
Originally published November 05, 2001.
