Hurricane Ike moved off western Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico tonight where the weakened Category 1 storm was expected to strengthen in the warm waters on its way to the Gulf Coast.
Earlier, Ike toppled decrepit buildings in Havana and raked over western Cuba still recovering from the more powerful Gustav as it made a second landfall on the island on a path that may steer it away from the heart of Gulf of Mexico oilfields.
Heavy rains and high winds pounded the Cuban capital as Ike, a borderline Category 1 storm on the five-step hurricane intensity scale with 120 km per hour winds, passed through the westernmost Pinar del Rio province.
Havana, a city of 2 million people on Cuba's northwest coast, has many beautiful crumbling buildings, prone to collapse in bad weather.
Officials said 16 buildings had fallen today, but no injuries were reported. About 250,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas and precarious buildings ahead of Ike.
State-run Cuban media reported widespread damage throughout the eastern provinces and showed videos of toppled trees, destroyed homes, downed power lines and flooded towns, inundated by up to 10 inches of rain, swollen rivers and, along the coast, a surging sea.
Cuban television said four people died in the storm, including two men who were electrocuted when they tried to take down an antenna that fell into an electric line, a woman killed when her house collapsed and a man crushed when a tree blew over onto his home.
Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba where the government conducts mass evacuations.
Power was out east of Havana due to widespread storm damage and areas to the west were deliberately blacked out as a precaution as Ike moved toward the Gulf after spending more than 36 hours ripping up the island from one end to the other.
Ike's most likely track would take it over western Cuba and to the US coast near the Texas-Mexico border by early Saturday,a path that posed a diminished risk to the bulk of the 4,000 Gulf platforms that produce 25 percent of US oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas.
Energy companies, which shut down most Gulf oil and gas production during Gustav, delayed restarting the flow because of Ike, a decision that was likely to pare inventories in coming weeks. Shell Oil and other energy companies said they were evacuating workers from offshore rigs.
Forecasters said isolated tornadoes might pop up over the Florida Keys and extreme South Florida.
Cuba evacuated 1.8 million people ahead of the arrival of Ike.
The storm was expected to take a toll on the economy of Cuba, still reeling from the destruction of more than 100,000 homes by Gustav.
As it passed over the eastern provinces, Ike swept through the main growing regions for sugar and coffee and shut down Cuba's nickel mines and processing plants.
People in the stricken area reported that Ike stripped ripening beans from coffee bushes and leveled fields of sugar cane as it pounded the area for hours.
Sugar prices rose as Ike moved across the key Caribbean growing region.
The Cuban government has promised to provide aid quickly to storm victims, but Eduardo Hernandez, in Holguin 460 miles from the Cuban capital, said something more may be needed.
Across the Florida Straits, 90 miles to the north, schools, hospitals and government offices were closed in the Florida Keys, a 110-mile island chain connected by a single road.
The islands were not expected to take a direct hit, but tourists were evacuated. Residents had also been ordered out but that measure was allowed to expire as Ike took a more southerly route.
Reuters