#Ike brings storm toll to 600, hundreds of thousands evacuate in Haiti, Cuba

``The destruction in Cuba is going to be extensive,'' Matthew Rinde, meteorologist at Accuweather.com, said today in a telephone interview from State College, Pennsylvania. ``Once it gets back out over the water it should restrengthen and that should be as early as Wednesday morning.'' - Bloomberg

NVDL: Ike is currently Cat 2, forecast to weaken before strengthening again once in the Gulf. Oil interests are starting to take note. Current trajectory puts Ike at the Louisianna-Texas border either late Saturday or early Sunday.

clipped from afp.google.com HAVANA (AFP) — Hurricane Ike raged across Cuba on Monday with torrential rain and winds as Haiti struggled with a growing humanitarian crisis after four hurricanes in four weeks. More than 800,000 people were moved away from coastal areas eastern Cuba and more than 9,000 foreign tourists were moved out of the resort of Varadero. Still packing winds of near 105 miles (165 kilometers) an hour with higher gusts, the US National Hurrican Center said Ike was a category two storm, down from a three on the five level Saffir-Simpson scale. Hundreds of bodies were found in Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town.