Hurricane Dennis slammed into central Cuba today after killing 18 people in Haiti and is heading for the Gulf of Mexico, where US oil companies have begun evacuating workers from rigs.
The storm, with 235-kph winds and driving rain, ripped up trees and downed electricity lines in the city of Cienfuegos as it roared across Cuba's south coast.
Cienfuegos resident Jorge Martinez said the howling wind was gaining strength in the city of 160,000, where power was already down.
The US National Hurricane Centre said the eye of Dennis would head into the eastern Gulf this evening and skirt the Florida Keys tomorrow.
It is the strongest Atlantic hurricane to form this early in the season since records began in 1851.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Cuba, whose Communist authorities suspended all school classes and evacuated 656,144 people from the storm's path.
