Hurricane Michelle lashes Cuba leaving five dead
( 2001-11-06 10:43 ) (7 )

CASTRO: See all this hurricane CUBA: A water mass

President Fidel Castro toured storm-ravaged areas Monday after the strongest hurricane to hit Cuba in his more than 40 years in power left five people dead, toppled trees, downed power lines and damaged homes.

Michelle, now downgraded to a Category Three storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale -- which tops out at five -- crashed ashore on the southwest coast Sunday with 215 kilometer (133 miles) per hour winds and driving rains. It tore trees up by the roots and blocked roads and highways, particularly in the provinces of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus, all east of Havana.

More than 600,000 people in Cuba were evacuated during the storm, which killed at least 10 people as it swept through Central America before zeroing in on the Caribbean's largest island, home to more than 11 million people.

In Cuba, four people were killed in building collapses and one drowned, civil defense officials said. The deaths were all reported in Matanzas except for one in the capital.

Schools in Cuba remained closed and air and sea travel were still suspended. Telephone service was spotty, with calls abroad interrupted but not incoming international calls.

In Havana, where collapses and cave-ins after storms are major seasonal concerns, many people stayed home from work to try to clean up damaged homes and clear debris from fallen trees.

Transport was interrupted, and the capital of more than two million people lost power, which also forced authorities to cut off the supply of treated tap water. Many people had stored water prior to the storm following a government advisory.

Waterfront hotels in Havana evacuated Sunday slowly began reopening their doors.

With the storm lashing the island, Castro travelled to the resort city of Varadero, in Matanzas, Sunday and met with tourists visiting Cuba, the only communist-ruled country in the Americas, where tourism is the economic mainstay.

Cuban television reported that some 10,000 foreign tourists watched the storm pass in Varadero, Cuba's biggest resort area, taking dancing lessons and playing bingo. Among them were almost 600 mostly European sun-seekers evacuated from Cayo Largo off the southwest coast.

Michelle, which was churning toward the Bahamas Monday, crossed Cuba from south to north and went back out to sea near Varadero, which is popular particularly with visitors from Canada, Italy and Spain.

Mario Luis Morejon, of the Tourism Ministry, told the official news agency AIN that preparations to protect visitors to the island "were better than on prior occasions due to experience gained" during other hurricanes.

Inspections by civil defense authorities were ongoing, but there were no reports of injuries to any international visitors early Monday.

At 1500 GMT the center of Michelle was located about 35 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas, moving toward the northeast near 30 kilometers (18 miles) per hour. Its motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours, the US National Weather Service in Miami said.

Michelle is expected to weaken and the US state of Florida should escape the brunt of its force, the service said.

Honduras, which received 2.7 billion dollars from the international community after the devastating Hurricane Mitch three years ago, was urgently seeking aid, after Michelle claimed eight lives and left more than 27,000 homeless.

In Nicaragua, four people were listed as dead, 12 others were missing and 10,000 were left homeless by Michelle.