The Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos are being hammered by Hurricane Ike, the fourth major storm to sweep the region in the past three weeks.

AP quotes the islands' prime minister as saying that 80% of homes on the main Grand Turk island have been damaged.

 

Ike, measuring a ferocious Category Four, barrelled over the archipelago with winds of up to 135mph (215km/h). Forecasters say it could dump up to 12 inches (30cm) of rain as it powers towards Cuba and the Bahamas. Ike will pass just north of Haiti, which is still reeling from earlier storms, which left at least 600 dead.

While it will escape Ike's monstrous winds, Haiti's north-west coast is bracing for a fresh deluge, threatening the already battered country with worse devastation.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned of "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides over mountainous terrain".

The UN children's charity Unicef says some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by flooding caused by Tropical Storm Hanna last week, while more bad weather will further hamper the aid effort there.

At 0900 GMT, the centre of Hurricane Ike was about 65 miles east of Great Inagua Island in the south-eastern Bahamas, according to the NHC.

Power out

As Ike roared towards the Turks and Caicos, thousands of tourists and residents left the normally tranquil islands and the airport in Providenciales, the most populated of the island chains, has closed.

Prime Minister Michael Misick told the Associated Press (AP) news agency by phone that on Grand Turk hundreds of people's homes had lost their roofs.

He said people were cowering in closets and under stairwells, and were "just holding on for life. They got hit really, really bad".

The low-lying area, home to 3,000 people, has little natural protection from the sea and faces storm surge flooding of up to 18 feet (5.5 metres) above normal tides.

In the nearby Bahamas, tourists have been urged to leave the south-eastern islands, while the Royal Bahamas Defence Force is bringing food and water to the eastern islands of Mayaguana and San Salvador.

Heading south-west at about 15mph, Ike should hit the northern coast of eastern Cuba by late Sunday or early Monday, the NHC said.

Forecasters say it could strengthen on its way, threatening to devastate the island's sugar cane fields and putting the crumbling colonial buildings of the capital, Havana, at risk.

In Havana, residents have been stocking up on petrol, candles and canned food, after a television weather forecaster said "almost the entire country is in the danger zone", AP reports.

Supplies scarce

The destruction in Haiti has been described as catastrophic.

Police said 500 people were confirmed dead from recent Tropical Storm Hanna but that others are still missing and the number could rise.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said hundreds of thousands of people had been displaced by the flooding.

The WFP has begun distributing food aid but a spokesperson said the scale of the disaster was putting their resources to the test.

Other aid workers say people's spirits are running low after the successive storms.

"Food supplies and water are scarce and the price of the food that's left is rising," said Parnell Denis from Oxfam in Gonaives, the port city hardest hit by Hanna.

"The morale of people staying in the shelters is so very low; I am afraid to tell them that another storm is on its way."

Up to 16ft of floodwater in Gonaives has only now begun to recede.

Hanna struck in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Fay two weeks ago, which left about 120 people dead in Haiti.

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