Hurricane Paloma strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm on Saturday as it pounded the wealthy British Caribbean territory of the Cayman Islands and headed toward storm-battered Cuba.
Paloma's eye passed just to the east of Grand Cayman, the main island and home to most of the more than 50,000 people in the important offshore financial centre, but damage appeared to be light and there were no immediate reports of deaths.
"There is no damage to central George Town, where the bulk of the financial sector is located," said Cindy Scotland, an official with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. "So there is no reason to think there has been any damage in any way to the infrastructure of the financial services sector."
"The Authority does not expect any reports of significant, if any, interruptions in business," she said. Authorities issued an "all-clear" early Saturday for Grand Cayman but cautioned residents to move about carefully. Power was out in some parts of the island and the streets of George Town were littered with tree branches.
Paloma's sustained winds increased to 140 miles per hour (225 km per hour) early on Saturday as the storm hurtled across the group's smaller islands, Cayman Brac, home to 1,800 people, and Little Cayman, with a population of about 100. By 10 am EST (1500 GMT), Paloma was about 130 miles (210 km) east-north-east of Grand Cayman Island and about 140 miles (225 km) south-west of Camaguey, Cuba, and moving east-north-east near 9 mph (14 kph), the hurricane center said.
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