By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike weakened on Monday as itraged through Cuba, where it blew off roofs, toppled trees andflattened sugar cane fields like a giant lawn mower on a pathtoward the U.S. oil hub in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil prices rose $1.50 to above $107 a barrel on concernsthat Ike would further disrupt energy output from the Gulf,which produces a quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of itsnatural gas. Much of that production was shut down by HurricaneGustav's strike on the Louisiana coast last Monday.
Ike was expected to hit near eastern Texas, but a smalldeviation could threaten New Orleans, the city swamped in 2005by Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,500 people and caused $80billion (45 billion pounds) in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast.Gustav narrowly missed the low-lying city protected byfloodwalls and levees.
The storm tore roofs off houses when it hit Britain's Turksand Caicos Islands as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane on thefive-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, and floods triggeredby its torrential rains were blamed for 61 deaths in Haiti,where 500 were killed by Tropical Storm Hanna last week.
ANGRY WAVES
Ike weakened to a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (160 kph)after roaring ashore in northeastern Cuba late on Sunday nearPunta Lucrecia in the state of Holguin, about 510 miles (823km) southeast of Havana.
Cuba's state-run television showed angry waves slamminginto the sea wall and surging as high as nearby five-storyapartment buildings before flooding the streets of the city ofBaracoa near the eastern tip of the Communist-ruled island.
The storm was expected to traverse much of the 700-mile(1,125 km) island. It stripped ripening coffee from trees onthe eastern part of the island, where 85 percent of Cuba'scoffee is grown, paralyzed the nickel industry and destroyedsugar infrastructure.
"It seemed like the night would never end. Water. Wind. Weare going to have to call on our African gods to recover fromthis," Eduardo Hernandez said by telephone from the city ofHolguin. "There are trees and utility poles down everywhere."
Forecasters said Ike would hit Havana as it left the islandon Tuesday. Authorities prepared to evacuate tens of thousandsof residents from crumbling tenements, low-lying neighbourhoodsand areas along the north coast.
"Attention Havana, attention Havana. Havana is on hurricanealert. All residents must strictly follow the instructions ofthe civil defence," local radio said repeatedly.
Officials said at least 1.1 million people were evacuatedfrom vulnerable areas in Cuba, which is still reeling fromHurricane Gustav's strike on western provinces last week.
At 8 a.m. (1 p.m. British time), Ike was 20 miles (32 km)south of Camaguey, Cuba, heading west at 14 mph (23 kph), theU.S. National Hurricane Centre said. It was expected to reachthe Gulf by Tuesday afternoon.
Rainfall of up to 20 inches (50 cm) in Cuba was possible,forecasters said.
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has taken to writingcolumns since handing over power to his brother Raul, wrote onSunday that the flow of international aid to Cuba since Gustavshowed that it had many friends who wanted to help.
He said, without giving details, that close ally VenezuelanPresident Hugo Chavez had taken "measures that make up the mostgenerous gesture of solidarity that our country has known."
FLORIDA KEYS EVACUATION
Just to the north of Cuba, schools, hospitals andgovernment offices were closed in the Florida Keys, a 110-mile(177-km) island chain connected by a single road.
The fragile islands were not expected to take a direct hit,but tourists were evacuated and residents were told to leave asa precaution.
Ike ripped off roofs and knocked down trees and power linesas it passed over Great Inagua, the Bahamas' southernmostisland and the Turks and Caicos. No deaths were reported.
The storm dumped more rain on Haiti, which has been swampedby four storms in the last few weeks. Officials said 57 of the61 victims died in Cabaret, a town north of the capital.
Forecasters expected Ike to be a Category 3 hurricane, withsustained winds above 110 mph (177 kph) when it approaches theU.S. coast on Saturday. Its likeliest destination was eastTexas, but at least one computer model takes it ashore justwest of New Orleans, near where Gustav hit last week.
Oil companies that began returning workers to offshoreplatforms that were evacuated before Gustav hit madepreparations for another possible strike by the weekend.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva inPort-au-Prince and Jeff Franks in Havana, writing by Jim Loney,editing by Michael Christie)
