By Jeff Franks
HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike moved off Cuba into theGulf of Mexico on Tuesday on a path that should steer it awayfrom the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch after ripping theisland from one end to the other.
Ike, now barely a Category 1 storm with 75 mile per hour(120 km per hour) winds, left a long trail of destructionacross the Caribbean and had energy companies fearful it coulddo the same to their Gulf oil rigs as they scurried to evacuateworkers and shut down production.
Forecasters said Ike would likely regain power in theGulf's warm waters and possibly become a major storm again,revving up to a Category 3 on the five-step hurricane intensityscale with a minimum of 115 mph (178 kph) winds.
The good news for energy operators in the Gulf, where aquarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of natural gas is produced,is that latest projections call for Ike to go west toward theTexas-Mexico border, away from the main offshore productionareas.
Oil futures dipped more than $2 to below $105 on theforecast, although the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miamiwarned that its projections were subject to change.
Ike's most likely projected track eased fears that it wouldthreaten New Orleans, still scarred by Katrina, which killed1,500 people and caused $80 billion (45 billion pounds) indamage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.
Ike wreaked widespread damage on the east and west sides ofCuba.
Few official figures had emerged yet, but state-run mediashowed a panorama of destruction across the island, stillreeling from the more powerful Hurricane Gustav 10 days ago.
Ike struck eastern Cuba on Sunday with 120 mph (195 kph)and torrential rains that destroyed buildings, wiped out theelectricity grid, toppled trees, levelled crops including sugarcane fields, pushed rivers over their banks and threatened tooverfill reservoirs.
The damages could total between $3 billion and $4 billion,according to some official sources, said Elisabeth Byrs of theU.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at anews briefing in Geneva.
'ARMY OF GHOSTS'
Havana, which barely escaped the full wrath of Gustav, waspounded by Ike's winds and rain on Monday and Tuesday, whichtoppled at least 16 beautiful but crumbling old buildings inthe capital. Its streets were littered with trees, foliage anddebris.
"It sounds like Havana has been invaded by an army ofghosts," Havana resident Maria Valdez said, referring to thehowling winds.
No deaths had been reported in Havana, but officials saidfour people died in the eastern provinces -- a rarity for Cubawhere the government conducts massive, obligatory evacuations.
Gustav killed no one, the government said. State-run PrensaLatina said on Tuesday Gustav had damaged 140,000 buildings --90,000 of them homes -- when it blasted across the Isle ofYouth and westernmost province Pinar del Rio.
After crossing the eastern provinces, Ike dipped into theCaribbean and headed northwest where it made its second Cubalandfall on Tuesday at Punta la Capitana in Pinar del Rio.
The storm ripped across the same region struck by Gustavbefore leaving the island near the town of Manuel Sanguily onPinar del Rio's north central coast.
Storm-weary residents of the western province, many stillawaiting repair of their shattered homes, said that afterGustav, Ike was a breeze.
"There are strong wind gusts but it's not even a shadow ofGustav," said Juan Carlos Abadia in the town of Candelaria."We're accustomed to it. This is one disaster after another."
Before Cuba, Ike hit Britain's Turks and Caicos Islands andthe southern Bahamas as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane.
Floods triggered by its torrential rains were blamed for atleast 66 deaths in Haiti, where Tropical Storm Hanna killed 500last week.
The United Nations said it would launch an emergency appealfor money with about 800,000 people in Haiti in need of urgenthelp, nearly half of them children. The impoverished countryhas been hit by four storms in a month.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel, Marc Frank, RosaTania Valdes and Nelson Acosta in Havana, Stephanie Nebehay inGeneva, Jim Loney in Miami; editing by Tom Brown and MohammadZargham)
