World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Waves, brought by Hurricane Sandy, crash on a house in the Caribbean Terrace neighborhood in eastern Kingston, Jamaica, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Hurricane Sandy pounded Jamaica with heavy rain as it headed for landfall near the country's most populous city on a track that would carry it across the Caribbean island to Cuba, and a possible threat to Florida. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba on Thursday as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sandy had emerged of Cuba's northeast coast around dawn and was moving north at 30 km/h, with maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h. It was expected to remain a hurricane as it moves through the Bahamas.

The 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season passed well west of the U.S. naval base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, where pretrial hearings were being held for a suspect in the deadly 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole off Yemen. But it intermittently knocked out power to some of the 5,500 people living on the base. Officials said there was no threat to the 166 prisoners.

The hurricane centre said that Sandy would likely still be a hurricane as it passes over the Bahamas later in the day. It also might bring tropical storm conditions along the southeastern Florida coast, the Upper Keys and Florida Bay by Friday morning.

A tropical storm warning was extended northward as far as Flagler Beach and a tropical storm watch was issued for the northeastern Florida coast.

Cuba's communist government, known for its quick response to natural disasters, announced the evacuation of about 450 tourists from beach resorts near the eastern city of Santiago, according to Cuban state media, though hotel workers told The Associated Press they were not expecting any major problems.

Sandy "is a complex of strong rains, very intense," said civil defence Col. Miguel Angel Puig, adding that the rains could affect 200,000 people in Cuba.

The U.S. hurricane centre had said Sandy is expected to produce total rainfall of 6 to 12 inches across Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba.