HAVANA, Sept 13 (AFP) - Cuba Monday braced for Ivan, a ferocious hurricane that killed at least 63 people across the Caribbean, left a trail of destruction, and threatened Mexico`s Yucatan peninsula and several US states.
More than 1.6 million people were evacuated in Cuba, some even staying in air raid shelters, as the devastating storm continued its relentless march over the Caribbean, packing 260-kilometer (160-mile) per hour winds.
Ivan`s center could miss the western tip of Cuba, though the area still risked getting battered by powerful winds and heavy rains that also threatened Havana, forecasters said.
They said the storm could then move near southeastern Mexico`s Yucatan peninsula, home to the popular tourist resorts of Cancun and Cozumel.
There was also a possibility Ivan would make landfall in northwestern Florida, or on the Louisiana-Mississippi border later in the week, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
At 11:00 am (1500 GMT) the center of the storm was 135 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Cuba`s western tip, the Miami-based center said.
Cuban President Fidel Castro personally directed emergency operations marked by the biggest evacuation in the history of the country, where Hurricane Charley killed five people and caused an estimated one billion dollars of damage last month.
Authorities were particularly worried about Ivan`s effect on central Havana, where about 60 percent of housing is in a poor condition, with many buildings downright decrepit.
All flights in Cuba were canceled on Sunday.
Mexico meanwhile ordered 5,000 people to evacuate islands and coastal areas along the Yucatan peninsula.
"We`re on red alert" said Joaquin Hendricks, governor of Mexico`s Caribbean state of Quintana Roo. Authorities there said 239 shelters were set up in Cancun to house residents and some 3,500 tourists if the storm heads that way.
The tiny spice island of Grenada, population 100,000, was the worst hit by Ivan, with at least 34 people killed last week, according to the island`s consul-general in Miami, Richard Nixon.
In Jamaica, police said the death toll rose to 19 after a family of four was buried in a mudslide and rescuers were unable to save a 76-year-old woman whose house caught fire.
Powerful winds and heavy rain from Ivan tore down houses, uprooted trees and destroyed roads in the nation of 2.7 million.
Police said bands of armed men roamed the streets of Kingston and Montego Bay, ransacking shops and businesses, exchanging gunfire with police and confronting residents who defended their possessions with machetes. At least one looter was shot dead and two police officers wounded.
The hurricane was also blamed for five deaths in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic and one in Tobago.
The Cayman Islands, which were slammed on Sunday did not immediately report any loss of life, but search and rescue efforts were still underway, said Patricia Evans of the British dependency`s National Hurricane Committee.
In the three small islands that make up the Caymans, a popular scuba diving destination, many homes had their roofs torn off and flooding of up to 1.5 meters (five feet).
"It`s a mess," said Evans.
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has extended a state of emergency over the entire state, which is still mopping up from the ravages wrought last week by Hurricane Frances and last month by Charley.
Officials were considering evacuating parts of northwestern Florida, but residents were allowed back to the Florida Keys, a chain of islands south of Miami linked to the mainland by a single, 170-kilometer (113-mile) road, which now expects to be spared Ivan`s wrath.
Oil giants Shell, BP and ChevronTexaco said they were evacuating workers from some oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of the hurricane`s passage.
Crude oil prices rose sharply on the shift in Ivan`s path. The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in October jumped 1.25 dollars to 41.45 dollars a barrel in London.
At the United Nations, the Secretary General was "deeply concerned" about the humanitarian impact of the massive storm, his spokesman said.
"The Secretary General requests the international community to offer solidarity and the resources necessary to alleviate the hurricane`s effects."