Powerful Gustav Slams Cuba, Heads for U.S.

Aug. 31, 2008 -- Hurricane Gustav roared into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after destroying homes and roads in Cuba. The mayor of New Orleans ordered residents to flee the "storm of the century" by morning.

More than 1 million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars as they streamed out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav weakened slightly over Cuba and again over the Gulf of Mexico but was expected to regain strength as it moves over warm waters toward the U.S. coast, possibly becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane later on Sunday.

Even after slowing to Category 3 status before sunrise Sunday, Gustav packed top winds near 125 mph. Forecasters upgraded a hurricane watch to a warning for over 500 miles of U.S. Gulf coast from Cameron, La., near the Texas border to the Alabama-Florida state line, meaning hurricane conditions are expected there within 24 hours.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of Category 5 strength when it made landfall Saturday on mainland Cuba near the community of Los Palacios in Pinar del Rio -- a region that produces much of the tobacco used to make the nation's famed cigars.

At least 300,000 people were evacuated from Gustav's path as screaming 140 mph winds toppled telephone poles and fruit trees, shattered windows and tore off the tin roofs of homes.

Cuban Civil defense chief Ana Isla said there were "many people injured" on Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people south of the mainland, but no reports of deaths. She said nearly all the island's roads were washed out and some regions were heavily flooded.

"It's been very difficult here," she said on state television.

Forecasters said Gustav could hit Category 5 -- the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to rate tropical cyclones -- with winds above 155 mph on Sunday. It was expected to make landfall Monday along the U.S. Gulf coast, and authorities issued a hurricane watch from eastern Texas to the Alabama-Florida border.

Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, which was devastated three years ago by Hurricane Katrina, issued a mandatory evacuation order beginning 8:00 a.m. and warned that anyone found off their own property after it takes effect can be arrested.

Nagin called Gustav the "mother of all storms" and told residents to "get out of town. This is not the one to play with."

City officials began putting an estimated 30,000 elderly, disabled and poor residents on buses and trains for evacuation.

Gustav already has killed 84 people by triggering floods and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.