Lili Batters Cuba, U.S. Could Be Next
Forecasters are considering a hurricane watch along the northern Gulf coast of the U.S., ahead of Hurricane Lili.
The system is now lashing western Cuba and getting stronger, forcing thousands to evacuate. It's centered over western Cuba, about 115 miles southwest of Havana. Top sustained winds are up to 90 miles an hour and increasing.
Movement is to the west-northwest at about 13 miles an hour. That's expected to pick up, bringing Lili into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico Tuesday afternoon. Forecasters believe Lili could become a Category Two hurricane later Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Center expects Lili to remain pretty much on its current path. That would take it to the coast of Louisiana somewhere between New Orleans and the Houston area.
At 11 a.m. EST, Lili was centered at latitude 21.8 north, longitude 83.7 west.
Tens of thousands of people fled their homes in western Cuba in fear of the storm that ripped roofs from buildings in the Cayman Islands and killed seven in Jamaica and St. Vincent.
CBS News Correspondent Bobbi Harley, in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, reports that Lili could cause even further damage to the island's tobacco and citrus crops, already damaged by tropical storm Isidore nine days earlier.
The hurricane lashed Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and eastern Cuba on Monday with torrential rains and violent winds.
Lili grew into a hurricane on Monday as its winds topped 74 mph and its eye tore across Cayman Brac, uprooting trees and utility poles, knocking out power and tearing roofs from at least two apartment complexes, legislator Lyndon Martin said in the British territory. About 300 people sought refuge in emergency shelters.
"We just did a lot of praying," said newlywed Melanie Nunn of Greensboro, N.C., who had been honeymooning with her husband, Robbie, before the storm forced them to move to a shelter in Cayman Brac.
Lili, the fourth hurricane of the Atlantic season, was expected to make a direct hit on western Cuba, the Cuban Institute of Meteorology said.
Lili developed in the Caribbean last week as a tropical storm. The storm killed four the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Vincent, damaged 400 homes in Barbados and destroyed half of St. Lucia's banana crop.
Three people, including a 3-year-old, died Sunday in Jamaica when floodwaters swept them away. As many as 40 homes were destroyed, 120 were flooded, and 750 Jamaicans moved to emergency shelters, officials said.
Authorities in western Cuba asked people in low-lying areas or near the coast to move to safer areas and reported 127,000 people evacuated, including 3,715 people forced from their homes by Hurricane Isidore 10 days ago. On Sunday, another 100,000 people were evacuated from eastern Cuba as Lili neared.
Mexicans also were abandoning homes in the northeastern Yucatan peninsula, where Lili's heavy rains were expected later Tuesday. Isidore damaged 95,000 homes there.
Meanwhile, Kyle, downgraded to a tropical depression, swirled about 225 miles southeast of Bermuda. With maximum winds of about 35 mph, Kyle did not pose an immediate threat to land, though Bermudans remained on alert.