Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba (CBS4) ― Hurricane Ike killed four people as it roared down Cuba's spine on Monday and through the island's densely populated capital of fragile historic buildings after ravaging homes and forcing 1.2 million people to evacuate.

Ike, which raked the Bahamas and worsened floods in Haiti that have killed at least 312 people, made landfall on eastern Cuba as a terrifying Category 3 hurricane, then weakened on Monday as it ran along the length of the Caribbean's largest island.

Cuban leader Raul Castro received a briefing at the National Civil Defense headquarters in Havana on Monday. His brother, former leader Fidel Castro released a statement calling on Cubans to heed security measures. Cuban state television said that the country, which has reportedly carried out well-executed evacuations over the years, ordered 1.2 million people to seek safety with friends and relatives or at government shelters.

By Monday afternoon, the exodus began in earnest in the capital, where residents emptied out of once-lovely apartment buildings, now decaying and vulnerable to the weather.

Cubans are not generally forced to comply with evacuations but are well accustomed to following evacuation orders from the communist government. Pregnant women and mothers with small children are among the few who could be forced to comply with evacuations, but that is rarely necessary.

The Cuban Civil Defense brought buses and trucks to transport people to nearby shelters while others in safer structures or on higher land played host to family and friends. Despite the precautions, state television reported on Monday that Ike caused four deaths in Cuba: two men killed removing an antenna, a man crushed when a tree fell on his home and knocked down a wall, and a woman who perished when the roof of her house collapsed. The Cuban fatalities were first of the 2008 hurricane season.

In Havana, the government closed schools and government offices in the capital as people reinforced windows with wood, removed plants from balconies and formed long lines at bakeries. Along the seaside Malecon promenade where youths are known to hang out at night, businesses were shut down.

Hurricane Gustav tore across western Cuba as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane on August 30, damaging 100-thousand homes and causing billions of dollars in damage. But no deaths were reported, thanks to mandatory evacuations of at least 250-thousand people.

On Monday, storm-whipped waves crashed into five-story apartment buildings, hurling heavy spray over their rooftops, and winds that uprooted trees. More than 1-thousand homes were damaged, including 300 destroyed, when Ike first made landfall in Cuba in the easternmost coastal city of Baracoa, a Civil Defense Council in Guantanamo province spokesperson said.

Falling utility poles crushed cars parked along narrow streets in Camaguey and the roaring wind transformed buildings of stone and brick into piles of rubble. Colonial columns were toppled and the ornate sculptures on the roofs of centuries-old buildings were smashed in the city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

In Puerto Padre in the Las Tunas Province streets were clogged with tree branches and debris from damaged buildings. Much of eastern Cuba was without electricity and phone service was sporadic. The road between Santiago and Guantanamo was cut when a reservoir overflowed.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Tropical Weather Resources

• Tracking Ike - 11 AM Advisory
• 8:00 a.m.: Ike Weakens, Eye Over Cuba
• CBS4.com Hurricane Info
• CBS4.com Hurricane Preps