The National Hurricane Center in Miami says powerful Hurricane Ike has roared ashore in eastern Cuba.
The center says Ike slammed into Cuba's Holguin province at 9:45 p.m. Eastern time Sunday as a dangerous Category 3 storm. Meteorologist Todd Kimberlain says Ike is now walloping easternmost Cuba with winds close to 125 miles-an-hour. He says it's moving mostly on a westward course and could rake Cuba over
the length of the central portion of the island in coming hours.
He says the storm is expected to re-emerge sometime Tuesday over the Caribbean island's western coast before taking aim next at the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters are urging coastal dwellers all along the Gulf from Florida to Mexico to be watching Ike's still uncertain path.
In Key West, evacuation orders became mandatory Sunday for both tourists and city's 25,000 residents. Traffic along the lone highway off the island has been steady but not jammed, with some people planning to tough it out unless the storm turns.
Ike is expected to make landfall late in the week somewhere between the Florida panhandle and the Texas coast.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is hoping that so-called "hurricane fatigue" won't prevent people from leaving their homes for what would be the second time in 10 days.
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