Indonesia says about 250 missing in ferry sinking

PARE-PARE, Indonesia (Reuters) - Nearly 250 people are still missing from an Indonesian ferry which sank in heavy seas at the weekend, officials said on Monday, as bad weather hampered rescue efforts.

A port official and a survivor told Reuters the passenger manifest might have been incomplete, raising the possibility there may have been more than the official tally of 267 on the stricken vessel.

Transport Minister Jusman Syafi'i Djamal told a news conference a preliminary investigation showed the 10-year-old boat capsized on Sunday after it was battered by waves in eastern Indonesia.

The meteorology agency had warned of bad weather in the area but Djamal said port authorities had given the ferry the go-ahead to leave and conditions were clear when it left.

"We will investigate thoroughly why the captain decided to go," the minister said. A ministry spokesman said that 23 survivors had been found so far, while 244 were missing.

Indonesia's aging transport system has been plagued by a spate of disasters in recent years including ferry and air accidents.

The ferry, which had 250 passengers and 17 crew according to the manifest, was traveling from Pare-Pare on the west coast of Sulawesi island to Samarinda city on Indonesia's side of Borneo island when it ran into bad weather on Sunday.

An official on Sulawesi quoted survivors as saying the ferry rolled over and sank after being hit by waves of more than 5 meters (16 feet) in the early hours of Sunday.

One survivor, Daeng Gassing, who spoke as several sobbing relatives comforted him, said he had managed to scramble onto a life raft after clinging to a piece of wood and had pulled five others to safety but his son and father-in-law were missing.

"I grabbed my son on my back and swam to a piece of wood, but my son disappeared after being hit by a big wave," he said.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis center, said that six deaths had been confirmed.

Taufik Bulu, head of maritime safety in Pare-Pare, said more people may have died than expected because many would have been asleep when the disaster struck.

Data on passengers using Indonesian ferries is notoriously unreliable and survivor Gassing said he was not on the manifest.

"I was not in the list of passengers because I bought the ticket on the ferry," he told Reuters.

Bulu, who said the manifest was based on 200 tickets reported sold by a ticket seller and 50 other names added just before the ferry left, said it was possible latecomers may have bought tickets on the ferry.

RESCUE EFFORTS

Ferries are vital in the world's fourth-most populous country, which has more than 17,000 islands spanning a distance of 5,000 km, the equivalent of going from Ireland to Iran.

But accidents are common largely because of under-investment in infrastructure and a tendency to overload the boats.

The transport minister denied the ferry had been overloaded.

A senior official said the captain was not able to switch on a general alarm to warn passengers when the disaster struck.

The rescue effort, which involved aircraft and ships, was delayed on Monday due to bad weather, said search and rescue head, Ida Bagus Sanubari, before resuming later.

In Pare-Pare, a Reuters photographer saw a transport ministry ship loaded with body bags depart for the search area.

In the port, a group of about 100 people thronged around a list of passengers, some fainting and appearing hysterical, while in Samarinda, desperate relatives awaited news.

"We heard two more people had been rescued. Hopefully, one of them is my family member," Arifin Abdul Hafid told Metro TV.

Indonesia has come under pressure in recent years to improve its transportation sector following several serious accidents.

On December 30, 2006, a ferry with at least 600 onboard sank in a storm after it travelled between Borneo and Java island. About 250 survivors were found in the days after the accident.

A couple of months later at least 42 people were killed when fire broke out aboard a ferry that was heading from Jakarta to Bangka island off Sumatra.

There have also been accidents involving airlines, prompting the European Union to ban Indonesian carriers from its airspace.

Fire in illegal Chinese dance hall kills 43

A fire at an illegal dance club in southern China, just across the border from Hong Kong, left 43 mostly young people dead and another 88 injured, another grim reminder of the country's broken regulatory system.

The fire broke out just before midnight at the packed King of the Dancers club, sparked by a pyrotechnics display on the third floor, said Xinhua, quoting local police as saying.

The owner of the club, located in a blue collar area about an hour's taxi ride from downtown Shenzhen, was being questioned by police, but no charges had yet be filed, said Xinhua.

The main hall quickly filled with deadly smoke after the roman candle-type display touched ceiling tiles, and the lights went off soon after -- plunging panicking revellers into darkness, said witnesses.

"The fire wasn't that big, but there was a lot of smoke," said a man surnamed Zhang, who said he worked at the club.

"Everyone was crowding towards the front entrance, because they didn't know about the one in the back," said Zhang.

"We tried to tell them, but nobody would listen," he said.

Local media and witnesses said the club operated without a proper licence, but local officials could not confirm that.

Just hours later a coal mine gas accident in central Henan Province claimed 37 lives, said Xinhua.

Rescue efforts are underway at the privately-owned mine, which had 108 miners underground at the time of the accident, 64 of which were able to escape, it said.

China is trying close smaller unsafe mines, but with soaring coal prices mine operators working in concert with local officials have strong financial incentives to keep their mines open.

The accidents come as China is scrambling to contain a spreading scandal over tainted dairy products that has killed four children, made thousands more ill, triggered a regionwide recall and sparked an outcry from China's trading partners.

Premier Wen Jiabao presided over a cabinet meeting last week, after which the government said the incident reflected chaotic industry conditions, loopholes in the supervision and management of the dairy industry.

Many of the deaths and injuries occurred in a stampede to escape through a narrow hallway, said Xinhua.

The Party chief of the province, Wang Yang, has ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the accident, said Xinhua, without giving any other details.

More to come in busy Atlantic hurricane season

The 10 tropical storms and hurricanes that ripped through the Atlantic and Caribbean during this busy hurricane season savaged Haiti, Cuba and the U.S. Gulf coast, and conditions are now ripe for more.

Residents of the Atlantic-Caribbean danger zone should not let down their guard, despite a brief lull in the action following Tropical Storm Josephine's demise two weeks ago and Hurricane Ike's strike on the Texas coast, experts said.

"Conditions are still favorable for hurricanes. People really need to stay on their toes," said Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane season forecaster for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Forecasters had predicted the season, which runs through November 30, could produce up to 18 cyclones, and the warm sea temperatures, low wind shear and other factors that contribute to the formation of hurricanes are still in place.

Water in the Caribbean and Atlantic is warmer than usual by 0.9 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius), Bell said. Hurricanes feed on warm sea water.

Patches of cooler water, drawn from the depths by the passage of powerful hurricanes like Ike and Gustav, have appeared around Cuba and in the Gulf of Mexico, but they are not likely to have a big impact on future storms.

Wind shear, which is the difference in wind speeds at different levels of the atmosphere and which can disrupt nascent hurricanes, is relatively low.

El Nino, the eastern Pacific warm water phenomenon that can dampen Atlantic storm formation, has not developed. Neutral El Nino conditions are expected for the rest of the season, experts said.

"Through October 15th I would not let my guard down on the (U.S.) eastern seaboard at all," AccuWeather forecaster Joe Bastardi said, predicting another three to five storms.

"Between the 25th (of September) and 15th of October the Caribbean will light up, but first, something may form off the Carolinas," he said.

TOUGH YEAR

Six consecutive Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes hit the United States from late July to mid-September, causing billions of dollars in damage. Four in a row swamped Haiti, killing hundreds of people.

Gustav and Ike crushed Cuba before heading off to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where they rampaged through oil and gas fields.

At this point, just after the statistical peak of the six-month season, there is no comparison to 2005, the all-time record-breaker with 28 storms, when forecasters ran out of storm names and had to resort to the Greek alphabet. That year spawned Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans.

On September 18 of 2005, Rita formed. It was the 17th storm of the season and eventually became a 180 mph (290 kph) monster, one of the strongest hurricanes in history.

But not even in 2005 did six storms in a row hit the United States.

In fact, the U.S. National Hurricane Center says that so far it has not found another year since records began in 1851 in which the United States was hit by six tropical cyclones in a row, but it was still digging through databases.

The tendency to target U.S. shores is partly due to the atmospheric conditions that steer hurricanes. In some years, many of the storms that charge across the ocean eventually curve harmlessly northward without reaching the United States.

"We've had an extensive area of high pressure in the middle and upper atmosphere that has helped to steer the hurricanes west at lower latitudes," Bell said. "They have not recurved into the Atlantic."

Ike Forces Shutdown of 19% of Refining Capacity, Limiting Fuel

Hurricane Ike, which will make landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast today, caused more than 19 percent of the nations refining capacity to close and may limit fuel deliveries across the country.

At least 13 refineries in Texas were shutting down as Ike approached. Gulf Coast refineries and ports are the source of about 50 percent of the fuel and crude used in the eastern half of the U.S. Plants operated by Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell Plc were affected.

Gasoline shortages may occur across the southern U.S. up to Washington because of the closures caused by Hurricane Gustav and now Ike, Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability at the U.S. Department of Energy, said on a conference call.

``We expect to see constrained supplies of refined products,'' he said. ``The administration will utilize every tool at our disposal to lessen the likelihood of limited fuel supplies,'' including tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Ike bore down on the coast with winds increasing in strength to 110 miles (175 kilometers) an hour. Coastal areas faced a storm surge as high as 25 feet, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said on its Web site.

The storm idled about 98 percent of oil production and 94 percent of natural-gas output in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said yesterday. Gulf fields produce 1.3 million barrels oil a day, about a quarter of U.S. output, and 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas, 14 percent of the total, government data show.

Refinery Issue

``This is more of a refinery issue than an oil and gas issue,'' said Jim Rouiller, senior energy meteorologist at Planalytics Inc. in Wayne, Pennsylvania. ``A storm as massive as Ike has the capacity to generate massive storm surge.''

Gasoline for October delivery rose 2.08 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $2.7696 a gallon yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the refineries closed. Prices rose 3.1 percent this week.

Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. energy company, urged U.S. consumers outside the Gulf Coast region to conserve gasoline and other fuels to help avert shortages.

The company, in a statement on its Web site, said it's concerned about ``the potential impact of Hurricane Ike and the additional pressure it could have on an already stressed petroleum-distribution system.''

Baytown Closure

Exxon Mobil is shutting its Baytown, Texas, refinery, the biggest in the U.S, with processing capacity of 590,500 barrels of oil a day, and its Beaumont plant, which can process 363,100 barrels a day, according to the Energy Department. Exxon is the world's largest oil company.

Valero, the largest U.S. refiner, closed three Texas oil refineries with a combined capacity of 589,000 barrels a day. They are the 294,000-barrel-a-day Port Arthur refinery, a Texas City plant with a capacity of 210,000 barrels and a Houston facility that can process 85,000 barrels, spokesman Bill Day said in an e-mail.

Earlier today, Valero closed 64 company-operated retail stories out of almost 200 in the Houston region, Day said.

Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Arabia's state oil company, started shutting down its 300,000-barrel-a-day plant in Port Arthur, Shell said on its Web site. Shell is also closing its Deer Park plant, which can process 340,000 barrels per day.

Motiva's Beaumont, Pasadena and North Houston terminals are also closed and refined product supplies at those terminals remain at ``safety levels,'' Shell said in a statement. Tank drivers earlier picked up their last loads and are making final deliveries in the region to refuel Shell-branded stations before Hurricane Ike makes landfall.

Corpus Christi

Citgo Petroleum Corp., owned by Venezuela's state oil company, declined to comment on the status of its refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

``We do not comment on operations,'' spokeswoman Shawn Trahan said in an e-mail.

Planalytics' Rouiller said Ike is similar to Hurricane Alicia in 1983.

``It took them over a year to get their feet on the ground again,'' he said. ``The refineries were down for months. Basically, the whole infrastructure around the Houston metropolitan area was devastated.''

Gasoline supplies across the southern and eastern U.S. may be disrupted by the storm, Rouiller said.

``We could have this capability lost for a long period of time,'' he said.

Houston Port

The U.S. Coast Guard closed the port of Houston, the nation's largest petroleum port. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. oil-import terminal, stopped unloading vessels.

BP is closing its 475,000-barrel-a-day Texas City, Texas, refinery. ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner, said its 260,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Sweeny, Texas, is closing. LyondellBasell Industries is shutting its 299,300-barrel-a-day Houston Refining LP plant.

Conoco's Pasadena, Texas, refined products terminal and Clifton Ridge Marine terminal near Lake Charles also closed earlier today, and all company-operated pipelines in the region are shut down.

LyondellBasell Industries is shutting its 299,300-barrel-a- day Houston Refining LP plant.

Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, began to shut its Texas City refinery, which can process about 81,500 barrels of oil a day.

Port Arthur

Total SA, Europe's third-largest oil company, is shutting down its Port Arthur refinery, which can process about 240,000 barrels a day.

``Ike is headed into the heart of the refining industry,'' Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said in an interview. ``The damage is likely to come in flooding, a lack of power for an extended period of time.''

WRAPUP 9-Hurricane Ike could be 'catastrophe' for Texas

*Ike expected to make landfall late Friday, early Saturday

*Storm could flood 100,000 homes

*20 percent of US refining capacity lies in Ike's path

By Tim Gaynor

GALVESTON, Texas, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike bore down on the coast of Texas on Friday, driving a wall of water into seaside communities and threatening catastrophic damage all the way up to Houston.

In what may be the worst storm to hit Texas in nearly 50 years, Ike's center was within hours of overwhelming low-lying areas near Houston with a possible 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge.

High winds and rain lashed the coast, sending huge waves crashing against a 17-foot (5-meter) sea wall built to protect the port of Galveston after a hurricane in 1900 killed at least 8,000 people in the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history.

The National Weather Service warned that people in coastal areas could "face the possibility of death" and officials said Ike could flood as many as 100,000 homes and send a storm wave across 100 miles (180 km) of U.S. coastline.

"Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentially catastrophic hurricane," said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, warning that the storm surge could present the gravest danger.

"This certainly falls in the category of pretty much a worst case scenario," he said.

Crude oil markets nervously watched to see if Ike would swamp low-lying coastal refineries in its path that collectively process 20 percent of U.S. fuel supplies.

Ike's ferocity surprised many just 11 days after Hurricane Gustav forced 2 million people to flee the Louisiana coast, but largely spared New Orleans.

Some 600,000 people left low lying Texas counties under mandatory evacuation orders, but some who thought they would stick it out made a last-minute exit from Galveston.

"When I woke up, my bed was floating in the house," said David Daubuisson, a handyman who narrowly escaped from his home in Bayou Vista. "I just took what I could and got out."

Ike was a Category 2 storm with 110 mph (175 kph) winds as it moved on a course to pass directly over Houston -- the fourth-largest city in the United States.

The storm is expected to come ashore overnight, possibly as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane on the five-step intensity scale with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

At 8 p.m. CDT (0100 GMT), Ike was about 95 miles (155 km) southeast of Galveston and moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), the center said.

MILLIONS COULD LOSE POWER

About 13 million people in 132 counties along the Gulf coast could face hurricane and tropical storm conditions, the U.S. National Census Bureau said.

Millions of residents could be left without power, authorities said. A dawn-to-dusk curfew was laid down in evacuated areas around Houston.

The Coast Guard had to rescue 65 people from rising waters on the the Bolivar Peninsula, east of Galveston.

U.S. crude oil futures rose 31 cents to settle at $101.18 a barrel after dropping below $100 for the first time since early April as concerns over U.S. economic weakness outweighed storm disruption fears.

Ports were closed and the Coast Guard said a 584-foot (178-metre) freighter with 22 people aboard was stranded without power 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Galveston. Conditions were too treacherous to attempt a rescue.

The storm's wide reach means that it will pack an unusually strong punch, taking the form of a huge wave of water it is pushing ahead of it.

"This is a Category 5 hurricane," said Jeff Masters, co-founder of meteorological Web site The Weather Underground. "I don't care what the Category 2 rating says," he said. Category 5 storms are the most dangerous.

The storm surge could push as far inland as NASA's Johnson Space Center south of Houston, Masters said.

Houston airports were closed and hotels were jammed with those seeking shelter.

Ike could be the third-most damaging storm in U.S. history behind Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew in 1992, experts said.

Risk Management Solutions pegged the value of insured property in the Houston area at nearly $1 trillion, including the city's port -- the nation's second busiest.

Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast in August 2005, killing 1,500 people and causing at least $81 billion in damage.

The costliest storm in U.S. history, Katrina also damaged President George W. Bush's standing and his administration was heavily criticized for its slow response to the disaster.

'200 villages destroyed' as quake hits Iran

A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 in magnitude struck southern Iran on Wednesday, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The citadel at the city of Bam, Iran in 2005, hit by a quake in 2003 when 30,000 people died.

The quake demolished nearly 200 villages in Iran's Hormozgan Province, according to Iran's Press TV, citing the head of the provincial disaster management headquarters, Yasser Hazbavi.

At least six people were killed and 46 others were injured, Hazbavi told Press TV.

People panicked and fled buildings when the temblor struck in the quake-prone region around 3:30 p.m. Iranian time (1100 GMT), Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported. It also knocked out power to the region. See map of quake's epicenter »

The epicenter was located 35 miles (55 km) west-southwest of Bandar e-Abbas, Iran -- just across the narrow Strait of Hormuz from the United Arab Emirates -- according to USGS.

Mehdi Rezapoor, head of the Iranian Seismological Center, said it was "a medium-sized quake."

Speaking on Press TV, Rezapoor had no details on damage, but said that based on the quake's strength, "I don't think it was very extensive."

The quake shook nearby Dubai, where CNN staff members said they felt the building they were in shake for about 15 to 20 seconds.

"From my office window at the Dubai Media City where all foreign media are located, I can see that a lot of offices have evacuated buildings," CNN Dubai Bureau Chief Samson Desta said.

"I can see up to perhaps 200 people who have taken refuge out in the streets, causing somewhat of a traffic jam."

There was no evidence of any damage in Dubai, where there are a lot of high-rise buildings.

Iran lies on a series of seismic fault lines and has experienced devastating earthquakes -- most notably in December 2003 when a 6.6 magnitude quake devastated the ancient city of Bam in southeast Iran, killing at least 30,000 people.

Major quakes hit Japan and Indonesia

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake rattled Japan on Thursday, within minutes of a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Indonesia, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from either quake, but both prompted tsunami warnings, although Japan's Meteorological Agency predicted it would be small, about 50 centimeter (20 inches).

The Indonesian quake occurred at exactly 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), the USGS said. Its epicenter was offshore, about 75 miles (120 km) north of Ternate in the province of Moluccas in eastern Indonesia. The quake was strongly felt in Ternate.

The Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Department issued a tsunami warning shortly afterward -- standard procedure for a quake of magnitude 6.6 or higher with an epicenter offshore.

The Japanese quake occurred at 9:21 a.m. (0021 GMT). The USGS initially classified its magnitude as a 7.2, but later reduced it.

The quake's epicenter was offshore, about 80 miles (125 km) south-southwest of Kushiro on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and about 21.7 miles (35 km) below the Earth's surface.

The Indonesian quake was much deeper -- about 57.9 miles (93 km). In general, earthquakes centered closer to the Earth's surface produce stronger shaking and can cause more damage than those further underground.

Earthquakes between magnitude 6.0 and 6.9 are considered "strong" by the USGS.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said neither quake posed a Pacific-wide tsunami threat. However, "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the administration said.

Hurricane Ike over Gulf of Mexico, aims at Texas

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike gathered strength as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters on Wednesday on a track that would skirt the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch before slamming into the Texas coast on Saturday.

Ike grew to a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (155 kph) winds and could come ashore as a ferocious Category 4 storm on the five-step intensity scale with winds of 132 mph (213 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

But the latest projections pointed Ike toward the middle of the Texas coast, skirting to the west of the main region for offshore production in the gulf, which provides a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.

U.S. crude oil prices hit a fresh five-month low of $101.36 a barrel on Wednesday as weak demand and a strong dollar offset a surprise OPEC production cut agreement and back-to-back hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico that have cut deeply into U.S. energy supplies.

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the hurricane center said in its latest advisory Ike was 720 miles east of Brownsville, Texas and 370 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

New Orleans, still scarred by Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, appeared to be out of danger.

Texas officials ordered some residents in low-lying Matagorda and Brazoria counties to evacuate. Mandatory evacuations had been illegal in Texas but the state changed its laws after Hurricane Rita in 2005. So far evacuation totals are nowhere near the 2 million people who fled Louisiana coastal cities in the path of Hurricane Gustav.

Other residents were boarding up homes and businesses to prepare for hurricane-force winds that could arrive on Friday.

"Right now, we have people coming in and out," said Steve Probert, who works at a hardware store in the resort community of Port Aransas, across the Laguna Madre from Corpus Christi. "They're buying everything we have under the sun."

President George W. Bush declared a federal emergency for Texas, allowing some federal disaster assistance.

BUSES NOT BODY BAGS

Ike's current track would see it hit the Texas coast just north of Corpus Christi, a major Gulf Coast oil refining hub.

But about 250 miles of Texas coastline from Matagorda Bay to Brownsville on the Mexico border are on alert for possible mandatory evacuations due to wide uncertainty over the storm's path. A line of buses made their way from Corpus Christi to inland shelters as the city evacuated some elderly and sick residents.

Some residents in Brazoria County south of the low-lying coastal city of Galveston were ordered to evacuate.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that some resident would likely resist evacuation calls but said he wants to see "buses, not body bags." Perry put 1,350 buses on standby to carry possible evacuees.

Torrential rains from the storm could be more damaging than its wind blasts, especially for heavily populated areas in the Rio Grand Valley which already took a soaking from Hurricane Dolly in July.

In the lower Florida Keys, rainfall of up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) was possible and the area could also face storm surges, large waves and isolated tornadoes and waterspouts on Wednesday, U.S. forecasters said. Southwest Florida was expected to see up to four 4 inches of rain.

CUBA TAKES DIRECT HIT

In Cuba, big waves and storm surges were expected to subside on Wednesday, but heavy rains on the western end of the island could produce flash floods, the center said.

Ike has already caused widespread damage in Cuba.

Few official figures have emerged, but state-run media showed a panorama of destruction across the island, still reeling from the more powerful Hurricane Gustav 10 days ago.

Ike struck eastern Cuba on Sunday with 120 mph (195 kph) winds and torrential rains that destroyed buildings, wiped out the electricity grid, toppled trees, leveled crops including sugar cane fields and turned rivers into roaring torrents.

A total of 2.6 million people were evacuated before Ike, or about 22 percent of the country's 11 million population, but officials said four people died in the eastern provinces.

Before Cuba, Ike hit Britain's Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas as a Category 4 hurricane.

Floods triggered by its torrential rains were blamed for at least 71 deaths in Haiti, where Tropical Storm Hanna killed 500 people last week.

Texas expects major hit from Hurricane Ike

Voluntary evacuations were under way along the Texas Gulf Coast on Tuesday as officials prepared for a potential multibillion-dollar disaster when Hurricane Ike reaches the Gulf Coast later this week.

As many as 1,000 evacuees were expected to begin arriving as early as Wednesday morning in Lubbock, in the northwest corner of the state, after Gov. Rick Perry declared emergencies in 88 counties and placed 7,500 National Guard troops on alert.

They were expected to overflow the capacity of the city’s Coliseum, which was set up as an evacuation center. Officials put out a call for volunteers to help with the flow of evacuees and were planning to set up a second location in the city’s Civic Center, said Kevin Overstreet, Lubbock’s emergency management director.

At 11 p.m. ET, Ike had entered the Gulf of Mexico as it moved away from Cuba, where it left a double trail of destruction. The storm was centered 120 miles west of Havana and was moving west-northwest near 9 mph, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph.

Forecasters said it would strengthen, perhaps to a Category 3 storm with winds over 110 mph, before hitting the Texas coast late in the week.

“When it’s out of Cuba, it has the potential to become a lot stronger,” said Felix Garcia, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

‘Worst-case scenario’
Current projections placed Ike crossing the Texas coast Friday night or Saturday morning near Corpus Christi, where Nueces County officials convened an emergency planning call Tuesday. The county, which has no permanent shelters, began bringing in buses and ambulances to handle evacuations expected later in the week.

In Louisiana, where thousands of homes remained without power after Hurricane Gustav hit last week, Gov. Bobby Jindal urged residents to start stockpiling food, water, batteries and other supplies in case the hurricane veered east. The state also was readying shelters and making plans for trains, buses and planes in case a coastal evacuation is called later in the week.

Local authorities and insurance officials warned that Ike could be shaping up as the “worst-case scenario.” Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said her city was using models of the catastrophic 1900 hurricane, which killed at least 6,000 people, in its planning for Ike.

“It’s the storm we’ve talked about but hoped would never happen,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. If Ike were to strike Galveston and then enter the Houston Ship Channel, damage “would rival hurricanes Andrew or Katrina,” he said.

Jim Oliver, general manager of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, said the agency’s insurance exposure in Galveston County alone was more than $18 billion.

“Nobody will be ready if a Category 3 or worse hits,” he predicted.

Texas prepares for evacuations
Officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was too early to recommend evacuations along the Gulf Coast, but they said they would have a much clearer picture as early as Wednesday.

In Texas, officials were taking no chances. State transportation officials began establishing evacuation routes from the coast to North Texas, where the Dallas Convention Center was designated as the region’s primary evacuation center.

A state fuel team was dispatched to trace the routes toward Dallas, making sure enough gasoline would be available for the tens of thousands of vehicles that may travel the roads. Meanwhile, Texas officials contacted their counterparts in Oklahoma to arrange emergency shelter for 12,500 patients with special medical needs.

In Louisiana, many residents and businesses were not even bothering to take down the boards they put up ahead of Hurricane Gustav early last week.

“We left them up just in case — we’re unsure about the other storms that are out in the gulf,” said Nancy Jordan of Lake Charles.

“It’s just hard to believe that we’re going to have to do this again,” she said. “I know that a lot of people in the community have struggled financially with having to evacuate, but I think we have to in order to be safe.”

Hurricane Ike slams Cuba, roars into Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane Ike moved into the warm waters of the Gulf and took aim at the U.S. and Mexican coasts Tuesday after bringing down aging buildings in Havana and tearing through western Cuba's tobacco country.

Forecasters said Ike, which has already killed at least 80 people in the Caribbean, could strengthen into a massive Category 3 storm before slamming into Texas or Mexico this weekend.

STORM TRACKER: Ike's current position, forecast path

PHOTO GALLERY: 2008 hurricane season

Some 1.2 million people — more than a tenth of Cuba's population — sought refuge from Ike, which killed four people and shredded hundreds of homes as it barreled across the island.

Winds howled and rains lashed the empty streets of Havana as towering waves broke over the seaside Malecon promenade, devoid of the bustling crowds of Havana residents who normally fish and chat by day and drink and socialize at night. Navigation was banned in Havana Bay, its usually placid surface stirred up by white-capped waves.

More.........................