Hurricane Ivan – one of the fiercest Caribbean storms on record – is still keeping forecasters guessing as it continues its devastating journey across the region.
Cuba appears to have been let off relatively lightly by the huge storm; Ivan had been expected to hit the island head-on but skirted around its western edge and its 180 mile-per-hour winds have mainly affected a sparsely-populated area of the island.
According to the BBC News website, much of the island of Grand Cayman appears to have been devastated by the hurricane, though reports of how much damage has been caused are still patch because the island’s communication systems are still not functioning properly.
One Grand Cayman resident is quoted as saying: “It’s as bad as it can possibly get. It’s a horizontal blizzard. The air is just foam.”
Now, as Ivan heads into the Gulf of Mexico, there are warnings in force along Mexico’s Caribbean coastline from Tulum to Isla Mujeres, from where some 12,000 residents and tourists have now been evacuated. The island of Cozumel has also shut its airport,according to The Guardian newspaper.
However, most forecasters are still predicting that the huge storm will now head north towards the coast of the United States; latest predictions say Ivan will hit somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and Louisiana, probably on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd
