By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike made its second landfallin Cuba on Tuesday and churned toward the Gulf of Mexico on apath that began to look less threatening for the heart of U.S.oil production.
Thousands of Cubans huddled in shelters as foliage anddebris flew through the streets. The weakened hurricane hitCuba's southernwestern coast after a rampage through easternprovinces that toppled trees, destroyed homes, downed powerlines and caused the walls of some buildings to buckle inHavana.
Town were flooded by up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain,swollen rivers and a surging sea.
"It sounds like Havana has been invaded by an army ofghosts," Havana resident Maria Valdez said as tropical stormforce winds whipped through the capital.
Cuban media said four people died in the storm. Two menwere electrocuted when they tried to take down an antenna thatfell into a power line, a woman died when her house collapsedand a man was crushed when a tree toppled onto his home.
Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where the governmentconducts mass evacuations.
Ike's most likely track would take it over western Cuba andto the U.S. coast near the Texas-Mexico border by earlySaturday -- a path that posed a diminished risk to the bulk ofthe 4,000 Gulf platforms that produce 25 percent of U.S. oiland 15 percent of its natural gas.
Ike made its second Cuba landfall at Punta la Capitana inwestern Pinar del Rio province on Tuesday morning, a forecasterat the Cuban weather service said.
The storm first hit Cuban shores on Sunday near PuntaLucrecia in the state of Holguin, about 510 miles (823 km)southeast of Havana, before crossing the island and emergingoff the south coast on Monday.
Power was out east of Havana due to widespread storm damageand areas to the west were deliberately blacked out as aprecaution as Ike moved toward the Gulf after spending morethan 36 hours ripping up the island from one end to the other.
Forecasters said winds in Havana would strengthen duringthe morning and be followed by hours of torrential rain. Thatwas bad news for the Cuban capital, where more than half thebuildings and homes are rated in poor to bad condition.
Thousands of residents waited it out in shelters and at thehomes of friends and family.
With top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km perhour), Ike was a Category 1 storm on the five-stepSaffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale.
Its centre was about 40 miles (65 km) south of Havana at 8a.m. EDT (1 p.m. British time) and moving west-northwest at 13mph (20 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel in Havana; writingby Jim Loney, editing by Michael Christie)
