Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Entertainment Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Environment Health Science Special Co

HAVANA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Strong wind gusts howled through blacked-out Havana and thousands huddled in shelters on Tuesday as Hurricane Ike churned toward western Cuba on a path that began to look less threatening for the heart of U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Foliage and debris covered the streets of the Cuban capital as the weakened hurricane hugged Cuba's southern coast after a rampage through eastern provinces that toppled trees, destroyed homes and downed power lines. Town were flooded by up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain, swollen rivers and a surging sea.

"It sounds like Havana has been invaded by an army of ghosts," Havana resident Maria Valdez said as tropical storm force winds whipped through the capital.

Cuban media said four people had died in the storm. Two men were electrocuted when they tried to take down an antenna that fell into a power line, a woman died when her house collapsed and a man was crushed when a tree toppled onto his home.

Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where the government conducts mass evacuations.

Ike's most likely track would take it over western Cuba and to the U.S. coast near the Texas-Mexico border by early Saturday -- a path that posed a diminished risk to the bulk of the 4,000 Gulf platforms that produce 25 percent of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas.

BLACKED OUT

Power was out east of Havana due to widespread storm damage and areas to the west were deliberately blacked out as a precaution as Ike moved toward the Gulf after spending more than 36 hours ripping up the island from one end to the other.

Forecasters said winds in Havana would strengthen during the morning and be followed by hours of torrential rain. That was bad news for the Cuban capital, where more than half the buildings and homes are rated in poor to bad condition.

Thousands of residents waited it out in shelters and at the homes of friends and family.

"The winds picked up at around eight last night and it still feels like 100,000 devils are blowing at the same time," university professor Victor Hernandez said from the city of Cienfuegos on the south-central coast.

With top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km per hour), Ike was a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale as it approached western Cuba.

Its center was about 40 miles (65 km) south of Havana at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) and moving west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Ike's effects were being felt in the Isle of Youth and westernmost Pinar del Rio, where Hurricane Gustav leveled nearly everything in its path with 150 mph (240 kph) winds 10 days ago before moving on to Louisiana, on the U.S. Gulf coast, two days later. Gustav came ashore near New Orleans, the city swamped by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

For days, Ike appeared to be aimed at the heart of U.S. energy production near the coast of Louisiana and east Texas. As a result, energy companies, which had shut down most oil and gas output during Gustav, delayed restarting their production.

But Ike's latest most likely track shifted to the south and west, toward the Mexican border. It was expected to regain Category 3 strength before hitting the coast.

The shift eased fears that Ike would threaten New Orleans, still scarred by Katrina in 2003, which killed 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

CUBA ECONOMIC TOLL

Ike caused serious damage when it hit Britain's Turks and Caicos Islands and the southern Bahamas as a ferocious Category 4 hurricane. Floods triggered by its torrential rains were blamed for at least 66 deaths in Haiti, where Tropical Storm Hanna killed 500 last week.

Ike was expected to take a toll on the economy of Cuba, still reeling from Gustav's destruction of more than 100,000 homes.

The storm swept through the main growing regions for sugar and coffee and shut down Cuba's nickel mines and processing plants. People in the stricken eastern provinces reported that the storm stripped ripening beans from coffee bushes and leveled fields of sugar cane.

Production of nickel, the island's top export, was stopped as the storm approached on Sunday. Nickel production is located in the state of Holguin, where Ike made landfall on Sunday with 120 mph (195 kph) winds and which bore the full brunt of the storm. (Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes, Jeff Franks and Esteban Israel in Havana; writing by Jim Loney, editing by Michael Christie and Jackie Frank)