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| Sunday, 10 July 2005 |
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Hurricane Dennis pummels Havana HAVANA, July 9 (Reuters) Deadly Hurricane Dennis pummeled Havana into the early morning hours on Saturday, uprooting trees and leaving the city's 2.2 million people in darkness after earlier killing 32 people in southeastern Cuba and Haiti. The storm weakened as it crossed Cuba from a ferocious Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale to a less severe Category 2, but its 110-mph (180 kph) winds still screamed through the deserted streets of the Cuban capital, where many live in decrepit colonial buildings. Residents said trees were plucked from the ground. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dennis - the strongest hurricane recorded so early in an Atlantic storm season - would strengthen again on Saturday as it re-emerged over warm open water and skipped south of the Florida Keys. Thousands of tourists and residents were evacuated from the vulnerable and low-lying island chain at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, and many more prepared to leave coastal homes along the U.S. Gulf Coast, where Dennis was expected to land on Sunday evening. Natural gas and oil production was also curtailed as oil platforms in the U.S. Gulf, where a quarter of U.S. crude and natural gas comes from, were evacuated. Cuban authorities had evacuated more than 600,000 people in different parts of the country as Dennis approached the southern city of Cienfuegos. But the measures, failed to prevent 10 deaths on Thursday night. Cuban President Fidel Castro said most of the victims died in collapsed houses in two coastal towns in Granma province. An 18-day-old baby was among those who died, he said on state television, calling the hurricane a "diabolical force." Officials said 15,400 of the adjacent towns' 20,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Television images showed rows of clapboard houses flattened by the storm. |
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