PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos (AP) -- Hurricane Ike roared across the Turks and Caicos on Sunday as a ferocious Category 4 storm, as people sought refuge from its howling winds in emergency shelters or in their homes.
Shopkeepers and homeowners in Providenciales frantically boarded up windows and residents headed to makeshift shelters late Saturday as Ike's massive gray wall of clouds neared the low-lying island chain island.
The airport in Providenciales closed after thousands of tourists and residents of the typically tranquil island chain evacuated.
The storm brought fierce, palm-bending winds that Desiree Adams, along with 11 members of her family, could hear through the storm shutters of her Grand Turk home. The power was out, but they had water and food and battery-powered lanterns if necessary.
``We're all just laying down looking up at the dark ceiling and talking,'' Adams, a personal adviser to the island chain's chief minister for tourism issues, said by mobile phone.
Grand Turk, the capital of the Turks and Caicos, is home to about 3,000 people, and has little natural protection from the sea and expected storm surge, but Adams said she and her family were not afraid.
``We live by faith here,'' she said. ``We believe in Jesus Christ so a lot of praying is going forth. There is going to be damage, no doubt, to infrastructure but that we can replace over time.''
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ike's eye was passing over the Turks and Caicos early Sunday. The center's Web site showed hurricane force winds from Ike battering the island. It was moving west about 15 mph with winds near 135 mph. Its path would take it by the southeastern Bahamas early Sunday and near eastern Cuba Sunday night or early Monday.
Ike appeared then headed for the Gulf of Mexico. In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal set up a task force to prepare for the possibility of more havoc, while Floridians stocked up on batteries, water and gas cans.
The approach of the hurricane also raised alarm in Haiti, where officials issued a tropical storm warning and feared it could worsen deadly flooding. And Cuba, still recovering from a devastating hit by Category 4 Hurricane Gustav last month, was directly in Ike's projected path.
Cuba's government warned people to be ready to take emergency action, but hotels said they had not yet started evacuating foreign guests.
Guantanamo Bay Navy base in southeast Cuba will go on ``condition of readiness one'' at 2 a.m. EDT, meaning all ferries will be secured, beaches will be off limits and private cars will be banned from roads, said Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Lamb.
Lamb said the commander will lift the restrictions after the hurricane has passed and a damage assessment is made at the U.S. base, where some 255 men suspected on links to the Taliban and al-Qaida in what the military says are hurricane-proof cells.
Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick said his government opened shelters throughout the islands and brought in an emergency food shipment.
``We're still praying that the storm will make a northerly turn and we will be spared, even a little bit,'' Misick told The Associated Press.
To reach Haitian immigrants, many of them illegal, the government broadcast emergency messages in Creole and told law enforcement figures not to enforce immigration laws during the storm.
Low-lying Turks and Caicos and the neighboring Bahamas are vulnerable to flooding from rain and storm surge.
Turks and Caicos, a British territory, was pummeled for four days by Hurricane Hanna earlier this week. It caused widespread flooding and some damage, but did far worse when it drifted toward Haiti as a tropical storm, creating floods that had killed 167 people by Saturday.
In the Bahamas, the government urged tourists to evacuate the sparsely populated southeastern islands and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force dispatched marines to bring food and water to the eastern islands of Mayaguana and San Salvador.
Off Mexico's Pacific coast, Tropical Storm Lowell formed late Saturday with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. Lowell's center was 265 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. (photo courtesy of Reuters)
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