Al Jazeera
Juan Jacomino, a Cuban journalist, told Al Jazeera: "This major danger is going to hit us with all it's worth - it's not a possibility it's is a fact. "[Gustav] is the same strength a hurricane as Katrina ... there will be economic losses for sure. "The western part of Cuba is going to be most affected but also Havana, which has two million people ... may suffer a lot." Thousands of people have moved into shelters supplied with food in Cuba and medical teams placed on alert. The storm's centre was 360km from Cuba's western tip and moving north-northwest at 19km-an-hour, forecasters said on Saturday. In the western province of Pinar del Rio, workers were moving recently harvested crops of tobacco to safe places.
"[Gustav] is the same strength a hurricane as Katrina ... there will be economic losses for sure.
"The western part of Cuba is going to be most affected but also Havana, which has two million people ... may suffer a lot."
Thousands of people have moved into shelters supplied with food in Cuba and medical teams placed on alert.
The storm's centre was 360km from Cuba's western tip and moving north-northwest at 19km-an-hour, forecasters said on Saturday.
In the western province of Pinar del Rio, workers were moving recently harvested crops of tobacco to safe places.
Earth Times
Havana - The Cuban government evacuated areas of the country's west as hurricane Gustav approached, prompting authorities in the island country elevate to the highest state of readiness. According to Cuban state television, cities and communities from Pinar del Rio in the furthermost west of the country to the capital Havana were taking all preparations necessary to protect the population against the hurricane, which had reached winds of up to 140 kilometres per hour.
Gustav howled into Cuba's Isla de Juventud as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane on Saturday while both Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the path of the fast-growing storm. Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as it powered its way toward mainland Cuba, where authorities were hurriedly evacuating more than 240,000 people from the nation's tobacco-rich western tip. The hurricane was projected to plow into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico at full force Sunday, and reach the U.S. coast as early as Monday afternoon. A hurricane watch was issued from Texas east to Florida, an area that includes New Orleans, which Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005.
Forecasters said Gustav was just short of becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane as it powered its way toward mainland Cuba, where authorities were hurriedly evacuating more than 240,000 people from the nation's tobacco-rich western tip.
The hurricane was projected to plow into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico at full force Sunday, and reach the U.S. coast as early as Monday afternoon. A hurricane watch was issued from Texas east to Florida, an area that includes New Orleans, which Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005.
A click on his name will take you to his comment with the link.
