Paloma hits Cuba coast, dies down

CAMAGUEY, Cuba (AP) — Hurricane Paloma leveled hundreds of homes along Cuba’s southern coast before rapidly losing power over land Sunday, weakening from a dangerous Category 4 storm to a tropical depression in less than a day.

Crashing surf and a powerful sea surge sent waves almost a mile inland as the storm ravaged Santa Cruz del Sur, the coastal community where it roared ashore Saturday night.

Javier Ramos said he rebuilt his simple wood-frame house in Santa Cruz del Sur after Hurricane Ike struck in early September, only to watch Paloma flatten it again.

“At least we’re alive, but my wife hasn’t seen this yet,” Ramos told The Associated Press as he scavenged bits of clothing and smashed dishes in his front yard. “I don’t know how she’s going to react. It’s going to be terrible.”

Authorities said the late-season storm toppled a major communications tower, interrupted electricity and phone service, but no storm-related deaths were reported.

Cuba had feared that Paloma could cripple its recovery from Gustav and Ike, hurricanes that struck this summer, causing about $9.4 billion in damage and destroying nearly a third of the island’s crops. But Vicente de la O of Cuba’s national power company said damage to the power grid was far less than that caused by the previous two hurricanes.

Paloma was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Santa Cruz del Sur, but quickly lost strength. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that by Sunday morning, the Cuban and Bahamian governments had discontinued all warnings associated with it.

By late Sunday night, Paloma’s center was 40 miles north of the colonial city of Camaguey and was moving northward at 3 mph. Its remnants were expected to emerge off the north coast of Cuba today.

day morning, the center said.

Once as strong as 145 mph (230 kph), the storm’s winds had weakened to 30 mph (45 kph).

Near Santa Cruz del Sur, flooding submerged homes up to their flimsy metal roofs and washed out banana crops and other farmland,