Hurricane Pounds Cuba, Aims at Gulf : Kate Roars Through ‘Hurricane Alley’; 10,000 Quit Fla. Keys

Hurricane Kate pounded Cuba with 110-m.p.h winds and roared through “Hurricane Alley” toward the Gulf of Mexico today, sinking boats and chasing 10,000 people from the vulnerable Florida Keys.

Forecasters said Kate, weakened by its assault on Cuba’s northern coast, was headed for the open Gulf where it could draw strength and pose a new threat to become the first hurricane to reach the U.S. mainland in November in 50 years.

“It could strengthen back to where it was before it hit Cuba,” forecaster Jim Lynch of the National Hurricane Center said.

The surprising, late-season storm threw heavy squalls at south Florida as it plowed west across Cuba’s coast at 20 m.p.h. Most Key West businesses closed, a city election was canceled and an estimated 10,000 people fled the oncoming storm.

Skirting South of Keys

But Kate failed to make an expected turn north and was skirting south of the Keys this afternoon.

“There was a one-in-three chance of the center of the storm moving over the Keys, but it appears that is not going to happen, and I’m extremely thankful for that,” chief hurricane forecaster Neil Frank said.

Kate, its top winds decreased to 95 m.p.h., was just off the northwest coast of Cuba about 80 miles south-southwest of Key West at noon PST. Hurricane warnings flew only for the middle and lower Keys.

The Cuban government declared a state of alert in Havana but no injuries or serious damage was immediately reported, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said in a report monitored in Mexico City. Waves surged over Havana’s seawall, flooding streets, and the Cuban government shut down along with schools and office buildings, said Lloyd Davis of the State Department’s U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

‘We Just Don’t Know’

After sweeping into the Gulf tonight, Kate could turn north and threaten the central Gulf Coast within two days, Frank said. But he added, “We just don’t know what’s going to happen until it clears Cuba and gets over the open water.”

A Coast Guard cutter rescued two people who fell from a windsailer in heavy seas off Marco Island on Florida’s west coast.