HAVANA - Gustav roared into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane Sunday after destroying homes and roads in Cuba. The mayor of New Orleans ordered residents to flee the “storm of the century” by morning.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Gustav weakened slightly over Cuba but was expected to regain strength as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and toward the U.S. Coast, possibly becoming a top-scale Category 5 hurricane on Sunday.

Forecasters said Gustav was just short of Category 5 strength when it made landfall Saturday on mainland Cuba near the community of Los Palacios in Pinar del Rio — a region that produces much of the tobacco used to make the nation’s famed cigars.

At least 300,000 people were evacuated from Gustav’s path as screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds toppled telephone poles and fruit trees, shattered windows and tore off the tin roofs of homes.

Cuban Civil defense chief Ana Isla said there were “many people injured” on Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people south of the mainland, but no reports of deaths. She said nearly all the island’s roads were washed out and some regions were heavily flooded.

“It’s been very difficult here,” she said on state television.

Forecasters said Gustav could hit Category 5 — the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to rate tropical cyclones — with winds above 155 mph (249 kph) on Sunday. It was expected to make landfall Monday along the U.S. Gulf coast, and authorities issued a hurricane watch from eastern Texas to the Alabama-Florida border.

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written by Andrew