The storm crashed into Pinar del Rio province from the south barely 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital, sparking new flooding in a region blasted two weeks ago by Hurricane Gustav.

Authorities it had been "very difficult" to broadcast messages to prepare for Ike, because 33 percent of the province still lacked electricity.

"Nature gave us another blow. We hadn't even got up from Gustav. Two storms in such a short space of time is terrible," an inhabitant of Pinar del Rio told AFP by telephone.

Gustav charged into the Caribbean island's westernmost province on August 30 and destroyed or severely damaged 140,000 homes and buildings before heading to the US Gulf of Mexico coastline.

"In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," Jose Rubiera, the head of Cuba's weather service, said on state television.

Although Ike was much weaker than Gustav -- category one compared with category four on the five-notch Saffir-Simpson scale -- it compounded Pinar del Rio's devastation, where some 100,000 homes were already destroyed and 600 schools damaged.

In the capital, authorities evacuated more than 20,000 people from colonial-era Old Havana, an elegant but fragile UNESCO World Heritage Site where centuries-old buildings are prone to cave-ins.

Electricity posts, trees and traffic lights lay battered on the ground and only police patroled the streets.

Residents barricaded their homes, lacking electricity and running water as they waited for the storm to pass.

"Everything is boarded up. It feels as if everything is flying around outside," a 49-year-old housewife told AFP from her home in the Vedado district.

Meanwhile, giant waves beat against the walls of the famous Malecon seaside walkway.

At 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) Ike's center was located offshore just north of Cuba 145 kilometers (90 miles) west-southwest of Havana with sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) kilometers an hour, according to the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center.

The storm was expected to head northward over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico within hours, where it could intensify into a major hurricane, the NHC said.

It was expected to move toward the southern Texas coastline where it could strike land early Saturday, according to the NHC forecast.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched a 5.8 million dollar (3.9 million euro) appeal to help Cuba tackle a "very destructive" wave of hurricanes.

In the Gulf of Mexico, home to the bulk of US oil refineries, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said Monday it had already evacuated 150 workers and would move its remaining 500 employees in the Gulf by Wednesday.

Ike drove some two million Cubans from their homes as it sliced across the lower half of the island Sunday, leaving three men and a woman dead.

It left a higher toll in Haiti, where it dumped heavy rains on northern towns and cities already inundated and struck by huge mudslides from three previous storms.

One hundred and one dead bodies have been found since Monday in Gonaives, the Haitian city hardest hit by Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike, Vicky Delore-Ndjeuga, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Haiti, told AFP.

"As the floodwaters recede, we found three more bodies in the city," he said. "The total is now 101 dead," he said.

"If we don't find a way to deliver massive humanitarian aid, we will see fights and riots that will kill more people than the cyclone did," he warned.

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