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Powerful Hurricane Ike looms as trouble for Gulf
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-07 20:32

KEY WEST, Fla. -- Powerful Hurricane Ike rolled down an uncertain path Sunday that may lead to the US Gulf Coast late this week, forcing emergency officials to pay attention and leaving millions of people from Florida to Mexico to wonder where it will eventually strike.


Hurricane Ike is seen moving across the Atlantic Ocean as Tropical Storm Hanna bears down on the US. [Agencies]
Officials in the Florida Keys planned to start a phased evacuation for residents Sunday morning after telling visitors a day earlier to get out. Ike, a dangerous Category 4 storm with winds early Sunday of near 135 mph, was forecast to affect the Keys starting Monday night on a potential track for the central Gulf.

Ike roared across the low-lying Turks and Caicos island chain before dawn Sunday as people in the British territory sought refuge in emergency shelters or in their homes.

At 5 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ike's eye was about 65 miles east of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas. It was moving west about 15 mph on a path that would take it near or over eastern Cuba Sunday night and central Cuba late Monday.

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