HAVANA, Sept 14 (AFP) - Hurricane Ivan Tuesday barreled into the Gulf of Mexico toward the US coast after slamming western Cuba on a devastating rampage that killed more than 70 people across the Caribbean.
Tens of thousands of people were told to evacuate their homes along some 800 kilometers (500 miles) of US coastline as the powerful storm threatened western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The ferocious storm was expected to land on the Alabama-Mississipi border on Thursday morning, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.
Because of powerful winds reach 410 kilometers (260 miles) from the center of the hurricane, the landfall would affect a large swath of land, to include New Orleans, Mobile, Biloxi and other cities.
If the storm veers of its predicted track it could also hit parts of Florida, a southeastern US state that is still mopping up from the ravages wrought by hurricanes Charley and Frances over the past month.
At 1500 GMT, Ivan`s center was about 700 kilometers (435 miles) south-southeast of the Mississippi river.
It lost some strength and was downgraded a notch after hitting the western tip of Cuba Monday, but was still packing ferocious winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) per hour, and could regain to category five strength, forecasters said.
As the mayor of low-lying New Orleans urged residents to seek shelter on higher ground, officials recalled that the far less powerful Hurricane Betsy had killed 110 people and left the city under more than two meters (seven feet) of water in 1965.
As schools shut down, residents along the threatened areas boarded up their homes and bought emergency supplies, while military bases deployed personnel, planes and ships to safety.
Florida and Alabama were under a state of emergency as Ivan roared toward the US coast after wrecking havoc across the Caribbean, from Grenada to Cuba.
Its latest rampage was in Cuba, where it raged for three hours late Monday after the eye slammed over Cape San Antonio at the island`s western tip, 350 kilometers (220 miles) west of Havana.
Hundreds of homes, fishing and farm installations were damaged as roofs were torn off, trees were felled and mudslides cut off some communities.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Cuba, which had lost five lives to Hurricane Charley last month, or in the Cayman Islands, which were hit on Sunday.
The tiny spice island of Grenada was the worst hit by Ivan, with at least 37 people killed last week, and as many as 90 percent of all buildings damaged or destroyed, officials said.
Thousands of the island`s 100,000 inhabitants were still living in shelters, they said.
In Jamaica, police put the death toll at 21 after powerful winds and heavy rain from Ivan tore down houses, felled trees and destroyed roads in the nation of 2.7 million.
The hurricane was also blamed for five deaths in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic, three in Haiti and one in Tobago.
Aid for the devastated nations started pouring, with the European Commission announcing it was sending 1.5 million euros (1.8 million dollars) and Canada pledging Canada 500,000 Canadian dollars (385,000 US).
But as the assistance was on its way, weary Caribbean residents cast a wary eye at Jeanne, a new tropical storm churning in the area and that could grow to hurricane strength.
Mexico, meanwhile heaved a sigh of relief as Ivan spared its Yucatan peninsula, but kept an eye out for Javier, another powerful hurricane that raged in the Pacific off its western coast.