HAVANA, Sept 13 (AFP) - Cuba Monday braced for Ivan, a ferocious hurricane that killed at least 66 people across the Caribbean, devastated the Cayman Islands 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.
Ivan was expected to make landfall in northwestern Florida, or on the Louisiana-Mississippi border later in the week, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The power of the storm, a top category five hurricane, could change in coming days, but in any case, "Ivan is forecast to be a major hurricane at US landfall," said Miles Stewart, a forecaster at the Miami-based center.
At 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) the center of the storm was 110 kilometers (70 miles) south-southeast of Cuba's western tip, the NHC said.
In Cuba, 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 in damages 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 was the worst hit by Ivan, with at least 37 people killed last week, according the Panamerican Health Organisation said Monday.
As many as 90 percent of all buildings were damaged or destroyed and between 5,000 and 8,000 of the island's 100,000 inhabitants were living in 47 shelters, where drinking water is getting increasingly scarce, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency.
In Jamaica, police put the death toll at 19 after powerful winds and heavy rain from Ivan tore down houses, uprooted trees and destroyed roads in the nation of 2.7 million.
At least one looter was shot dead and two police officers wounded as gangs of armed men ransacked homes and businesses, authorities said.
The hurricane was also blamed for five deaths in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic and one in Tobago.
There were not official reports of deaths in the Cayman Islands that were hit by the hurricane on Sunday, causing extensive damage.
"The winds ripped the apartments like matchsticks, the whole island has taken a battering. Cars and trucks were floating away like toys," a reporter told Citadel Radio from Grand Cayman.
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has extended a state of emergency over the entire state, which is still mopping up from the ravages wrought earlier this month 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, Secretary General Kofi Annan 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."