»Hurricane roars through Caribbean«

Hurricane Dennis has ripped through the Caribbean on Friday, leaving 10 people dead in Cuba and 22 in Haiti.

Dennis is now aiming for Havana and is on a course toward the US Gulf of Mexico, where oil rigs and vulnerable coastal areas have been evacuated.

The storm weakened slightly as it crossed Cuba but the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Cuban meteorologists had reported a 240 kilometre per hour gust that caused extensive damage in the city of Cienfuegos.

Cuban President Fidel Castro said Dennis had already killed 10 people as its outer bands brushed over Cuba's south-eastern corner.

The US Hurricane Centre said the eye of Dennis would head into the eastern Gulf on Friday evening and skirt the Florida Keys on Saturday before taking aim at the US Gulf Coast.

The centre of the powerful hurricane skirted past the eastern tip of Jamaica on Thursday but dumped rain and flooded roads on the island.

Cuban authorities rushed more than 700,000 people into shelters between late Thursday and Friday, including at least 2,500 foreign tourists.

The storm has already struck the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, tearing down a guard tower.

Evacuations are also being ordered on the southern tip of Florida.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency and is urging residents to prepare for the worst.

"We ask that you have enough water, enough food, non-perishable food," he said.

Forecasters warned Dennis could pass dangerously close to Key West early on Saturday on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, where 116 oil platforms and rigs have been evacuated.

The category four hurricane could also jeopardise the planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Florida's Kennedy space centre.

Scores of residents were left stranded by floods in eastern Jamaica, and several bridges were severely damaged, though no deaths were reported there.

Hurricane Kate

By Richard G. Henning (Elgin AFB)

This was the strongest late-season hurricane to ever threaten the U.S., as it did not form until late November. After forming in the tropical Atlantic, Kate moved through the Bahamas, and prompted hurricane warnings for the Miami area for the first time in 19 years (the first since since Inez in 1966). It passed just south of Key West and then curved NW into the center of the Gulf, about 200 miles south of Fort Walton Beach, where it intensified to Category 3 status. While water temperatures in the middle Gulf were still warm, especially for late November, as the system moved north toward the coast, it encountered much cooler water and began to weaken. In addition, a strong cold front had moved into the Panhandle and cold, dry air began to enter the storm's circulation. By landfall, it had some non-tropical characteristics, and had lost much of its intensity, but still caused wind damage well inland around Tallahassee and coastal flooding in the Big Bend region. Damage totaled about $300 million..

Hurricane Dennis has gathered strength again as it moves over the Gulf of Mexico away from Cuba, where it killed 10 people and left 1.5 million homeless.

Forecasters say Dennis is following a north-westerly track through the Gulf of Mexico where 116 oil platforms and rigs have been evacuated.

It is expected to wreak havoc with a swipe at the Florida Keys - which have put under a hurricane warning - before next making landfall somewhere between western Florida and Louisiana on Sunday.

Cuba

With winds of up to 240 kilometres an hour, Dennis hit near Cuba's central province of Cienfuegos as a Category Four hurricane.

Twelve hours later - after pummelling central Cuba - it dropped to Category Two on the island's northern coast, a few dozen kilometres east of the crowded capital Havana.

It further weakened to Category One only to surge back up to Category Two strength, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) says.

Before its arrival, Cuban authorities rushed more than 700,000 people into shelters, including some 2,500 foreign tourists.

A Government source says at least three provinces sustained serious material damage.

Homes were destroyed and power was knocked out in Santiago de Cuba..

The source also says communications towers were toppled and tourist facilities in Santiago province sustained serious damage.

President Fidel Castro says the hurricane had killed 10 people and displaced another 1.5 million as it crossed the Caribbean island state.

Evacuation

Meanwhile, thousands of people have been evacuated from Key West, Florida's southernmost city, as well as areas along the US Gulf coast.

Authorities also ordered an evacuation throughout the Florida Keys, a vulnerable chain of islands linked to the mainland by a series of bridges and a single road.

Thousands of people have headed to safety, but authorities are urging those who did not heed evacuation warnings to stay indoors and ride out the storm as roads are no longer safe.

Most hotels, petrol stations and stores in Key West have shut down and numerous homes and businesses are boarded up.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has declared an emergency in the south-eastern US state that was pummelled by four such hurricanes last year.