Ike kills 4 in Cuba, takes aim at Mexico, U.S. Gulf Coast

The Associated Press

A resident carries his bicycle as he wades through floodwaters after Hurricane Ike hit in Florida, Cuba, on Tuesday. AP

HAVANA — Hurricane Ike roared ashore south of Cuba’s densely populated capital of aging buildings Tuesday after tearing across the island nation, ravaging homes, killing at least four people and forcing 1.2 million to evacuate.

Residents in Texas and northern Mexico braced for a weekend hit from Ike, which has already killed at least 79 people in the Caribbean.

Winds howled and heavy rains fell across Havana, where streets were empty Tuesday morning. Towering waves broke over the Malecon seaside promenade, which police barricaded off late Monday. Many of the historic apartment buildings along its length are in poor repair and vulnerable to collapse.

Police spread out across the city to halt all but emergency and official traffic. Roadways were strewn with tree branches and rocks, and the rubble from crumbling balconies littered sidewalks. Navigation was banned in Havana Bay, its usually placid surface stirred up by white-capped waves.

Cuba, which has carried out well-executed evacuations for years, ordered hundreds of thousands of people — more than a tenth of its 11 million people — to seek safety with friends and relatives or at government shelters, state television reported.

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