• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 10 / 14 / 2010

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Reuters. Hurricane Paula brushed by Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and was expected to turn east toward Cuba, where preparations began for the small storm that packed a powerful punch.

Officials in the western state of Pinar del Rio said evacuations would begin later in the day and steps had been taken to protect fields of the prized tobacco for which the province is famous.

Paula, with sustained winds of 160kmh, was a Category 2 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and located 105km from Cuba's western tip, the US National Hurricane Center said in an 11am EDT (4am Oct 14 NZT) advisory.

The storm was moving north up the Yucatan Channel at 7km, but was expected to veer east and be over or near the communist-led island by Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

The storm did not affect any of Mexico's main offshore oil-producing region in the Gulf of Mexico and was not expected to move into the US oilfields in the gulf.

The storm was forecast to weaken on Wednesday night, then steadily decline as it moved along Cuba's northern coast.

The current forecast put Paula on a direct path to Havana, where it would arrive perhaps early on Friday as a tropical storm.

During heavy rains and high winds the crumbling capital typically suffers many building collapses but few deaths as storm evacuations are mandatory and efficiently conducted.

Cuba still has not fully recovered from three powerful hurricanes that struck the island in 2008, causing $US10 billion ($NZ13.6 billion) in damage and dealing a serious blow to the country's fragile economy.

Paula was not expected to be nearly as damaging. The Miami-based hurricane center said its hurricane-force winds extended just 30km from its center.

A Pinar del Rio official told Reuters light rain had begun to fall in the province, but was forecast to worsen as the day went on.

The hurricane center said the storm would likely dump 7.5-15cm) of rain, with up to 25cm possible.

The official said tobacco fields, where planting season has just begun, were being covered for protection and leaves from the previous harvest were safely stored in drying barns and warehouses.

In Mexico, Paula appeared to have spared dozens of hotels lining the white sand beaches of the country's Caribbean coast as it moved near the Yucatan Peninsula.

Tourists and residents were evacuated from tourist islands on Tuesday as a safety precaution.

"There's a drizzle outside right now. We were never on high alert, although some precautions, like emptying the pools, were taken," Karla Arroyo, an employee at Cancun's Fiesta Americana Condesa Hotel, told Reuters.

The hurricane center issued a tropical storm watch for portions of the Florida Keys.

Paula also spared Central America's coffee-growing region, battered this year by heavy rains.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4231350/Cuba-prepares-for-hurricane-Paula