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Ike blasts Turks and Caicos as Category 4 storm

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — Hurricane Ike roared across the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands before dawn Sunday as people in the British territory sought refuge in boarded-up homes or shelters.

The ferocious Category 4 storm dwarfed the tiny islands, packing 135-mph winds that extended up to 45 miles from its spinning center with another 145 miles of tropical storm force winds.

(enlarge photo) This image provided by NOAA taken at 11:45 p.m. EDT Saturday Sept. 6, 2008 shows Hurricane Ike over the Turks and Caicos. At 200 a.m. EDT the large eye of hurricane ike was located over the Turks iand Caicos Islands and about 115 miles east of Great Inagua Island in the southeastern Bahamas. Ike is moving on a motion just south of due west near 15 mph. A west to west-southwest motion is expected to continue today with a turn toward the west-northwest expected on Monday. On this track the core of the hurricane will move over or near the southeastern Bahamas this morning and move near or over eastern Cuba tonight and early Monday. Maximum sustained winds remain near 135 mph with higher gusts. Ike is an extremely dangerous Category Four Hurricane according to forecasters. Some strengthening is possible before Ike moves over eastern Cuba. (AP Photo/NOAA)

It was 65 miles east of Great Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas archipelago. It is sparsely populated but has the world's largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos, which migrate through the Caribbean.

Before the storm bore down on the Turks and Caicos Islands, shopkeepers and homeowners in Providenciales frantically boarded up windows and residents headed to makeshift shelters late Saturday as Ike's massive gray wall of clouds neared the wealthy Caribbean island chain.

The airport in Providenciales closed after thousands of tourists and residents of the typically tranquil islands evacuated.

The storm brought fierce, palm-bending winds that Desiree Adams, along with 11 members of her family, could hear through the storm shutters of her Grand Turk home. The power was out, but they had water and food and battery-powered lanterns if necessary.

"We're all just laying down looking up at the dark ceiling and talking," Adams, a personal adviser to the island chain's chief minister for tourism issues, said by mobile phone.

Grand Turk, the capital of the Turks and Caicos, is home to about 3,000 people, and has little natural protection from the sea and expected storm surge, but Adams said she and her family were not afraid.

"We live by faith here," she said. "We believe in Jesus Christ so a lot of praying is going forth. There is going to be damage, no doubt, to infrastructure but that we can replace over time."

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ike's core will move through the southeastern Bahamas Sunday morning and move near or over eastern Cuba later in the day. It was moving just south of due west at about 15 mph.

Ike appeared then headed for the Gulf of Mexico. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal set up a task force to prepare for the possibility of more havoc, while Floridians stocked up on batteries, water and gas cans.

The approach of the hurricane also raised alarm in Haiti, where officials issued a tropical storm warning and feared it could worsen deadly flooding. And Cuba, still recovering from a devastating hit by Category 4 Hurricane Gustav last month, was directly in Ike's projected path.

Cuba's government warned people to be ready to take emergency action, but hotels said they had not yet started evacuating foreign guests.

Guantanamo Bay Navy base in southeast Cuba went on a "condition of readiness one" at 2 a.m. EDT, meaning all ferries were secured, beaches were off limits and private cars were banned from roads, said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Lamb.

Lamb said the commander will lift the restrictions after the hurricane has passed and a damage assessment is made at the U.S. base, where some 255 men suspected of links to the Taliban and al-Qaida live in what the military says are hurricane-proof cells.

Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick said his government opened shelters throughout the islands and brought in an emergency food shipment.

"We're still praying that the storm will make a northerly turn and we will be spared, even a little bit," Misick told The Associated Press.

To reach Haitian immigrants, many of them illegal, the government broadcast emergency messages in Creole and told law enforcement figures not to enforce immigration laws during the storm.

Low-lying Turks and Caicos and the neighboring Bahamas are vulnerable to flooding from rain and storm surge.

Turks and Caicos, a British territory, was pummeled for four days by Hurricane Hanna earlier this week. It caused widespread flooding and some damage, but did far worse when it drifted toward Haiti as a tropical storm, creating floods that had killed 167 people by Saturday.

In the Bahamas, the government urged tourists to evacuate the sparsely populated southeastern islands and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force dispatched marines to bring food and water to the eastern islands of Mayaguana and San Salvador.

Off Mexico's Pacific coast, Tropical Storm Lowell formed late Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.

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Associated Press writer Mike Melia contributed from Nassau, Bahamas.

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