Ivan pounds Caribbean,
heads for Gulf Coast

By Staff
From staff and wire reports
September 13, 2004
Hurricane Ivan, one of the strongest storms on record, pummeled the Cayman Islands on Sunday with floodwaters that swamped homes and fierce winds that ripped off roofs.
The storm then strengthened to a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds as it headed for western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula before eventually taking aim at the United States Gulf Coast.
National Hurricane Center forecasters said the storm eventually could make landfall anywhere from Southeastern Louisiana to the Florida panhandle including the Alabama and Mississippi coasts.
At 7 a.m. CDT, Ivan was centered near latitude 20.4 north and longitude 84.1 west or about 110 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Ivan was moving west-northwest near 9 mph and a turn northwest was expected today.
As a Category 5 storm, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Ivan is capable of catastrophic damage. Hurricane Camille, which struck the Mississippi Coast in 1969, also was a Category 5.
One of five computer models the National Weather Service uses in forecasting hurricanes predicts Ivan will make landfall in Southeast Louisiana.
Another one predicts the storm will strike the mouth of the Mississippi River before it makes landfall in Mississippi. The other three computer models predict landfall in either Alabama or Florida.
Extensive damage
On Sunday, Ivan pummeled the Cayman Islands. The slow-moving storm lashed the wealthy British territory all day with 150 mph winds.
Parts of low-lying Grand Cayman, the largest island in the territory of 45,000, were swamped. People stood on rooftops of flooded homes today and a car floated by the second story of a building.
The eye of the storm passed just south of Grand Cayman, said Rafael Mojica, a Hurricane Center meteorologist.
Still, an estimated one-quarter to one half of the 15,000 homes on the island suffered some damage said Donnie Ebanks, deputy chairman of the British territory's National Hurricane Committee.
People were standing on roofs above flooded homes because the sea surged up to 8 feet above normal tides in Grand Cayman, the Hurricane Center said, citing ham radio operators on the island.
One resident called Radio Cayman to report seeing two bodies floating off the beach Monday. Another said they watched a car float by from a refuge on the second floor of a building.
Police could not confirm the reports of deaths.
Death toll
Ivan killed at least 15 people after it struck in Jamaica, 39 in Grenada, five in Venezuela, one in Tobago, one in Barbados and four children in the Dominican Republic.
Mexico issued a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning for the northeastern Yucatan, and hundreds abandoned fishing settlements on the nearby island of Holbox. The resort city of Cancun opened shelters and closed beaches.
As Ivan eyed western Cuba, it threatening that country's western Pinar del Rio province the center of tobacco growing and the biggest source for the country's famed cigar industry.
About 1.3 million Cubans were evacuated from their homes, most taking refuge in the sturdier homes of relatives, co-workers or neighbors.
Dozens of families in coastal La Coloma bundled up clothes, medicine, furniture and television sets before boarding buses to find shelter.
I feel sad leaving my house on its own,'' said Ricardo Hernandez, 44, a fisherman. But I have to protect myself and save the lives of my family.''
Iberia Cruz, 50, who lost her home in a hurricane two years ago, moved her valuables to a nearby building. We've lived through others, and that is why we are afraid,'' she said. The ocean could pierce the town.''