McClatchy Washington Bureau

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HAVANA — More than 700,000 Cubans were evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying homes Sunday as authorities there frantically prepared for a daunting historic event: the island's second powerful hurricane in eight days.

The picture for Cuba could hardly be worse. Nearly the entire country was inside Hurricane Ike's forecast cone when the slightly weakened Category 3 Ike barreled in at the eastern city of Cabo Lucrecia in Holguin province in eastern Cuba Sunday evening.

It was eastern Cuba's first monstrous hurricane, meteorologist Jose Rubiera told Cubavision.

"These people have never seen a Category 4 — or a Category 3," Rubiera said.

Rubiera said Ike and Gustav are breaking a record set in 2002, when two hurricanes — Isidore and Lili — hit Cuba in 11 days.

The far eastern city of Baracoa was suffering sea surge flooding Sunday evening and some 207 homes were destroyed by 7 p.m., Luis A. Torres Iribar, president of the Guantanamo defense council, said on the nightly news show "Mesa Redonda."

Models showed Ike crossing practically the entire island east to west, exiting Havana on Tuesday as a far weaker storm, sparing only the western provinces that were pummeled last week by Hurricane Gustav. It's expected to spend at least a day and a half in Cuba.

Cubans in the eastern provinces under hurricane warning scrambled to protect their homes by whatever means they could, as authorities acknowledged that the country's shoddy infrastructure could not stand up to hurricane-strength winds.

"History has proven that many of our installations do not resist these storms," Education Minister Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said on the afternoon news broadcast.

People were advised to stock two months of basic foods through October. Residents of Old Havana were lining up to fill jugs with potable water from blue tanks placed in the streets.

"We only have the government to depend on," one man named Adely said as he filled up. More than 11 tons of food were stored as every means of transportation available crossed the country to move tourists from resort areas and locals from areas prone to flooding.

"We've had storms here before. Never like this one, of course," said Rosa Rodriguez, who rents rooms to tourists in the eastern province of Holguin. "But we know what to do."

She said she had enough water and food to last about a week if needed, and was lucky to have extra wood left over from home repairs.

"I saved that wood, because I knew I would need it eventually," she said in a telephone interview, "and, look, today I used it."

Cuba's frantic evacuation effort began early Sunday, when Ike was a Category 4 storm. Gustav, which hit the island last week, was also a category 4, and it damaged about 125,000 homes and caused widespread destruction.

Retired leader Fidel Castro issued a statement Sunday night, noting that Cubans had not yet recovered from the "emotional damage" when Ike came along.

"More than 625 miles of our territory are going to be affected," Castro said in a statement read on the news, "and some of them twice."

According to Spanish news reports, 225,000 people were evacuated in Camaguey, 150,000 in Santiago de Cuba, 120,000 in Matanzas, 108,000 in Holguin, 44,000 in Cienfuegos, 34,000 in Las Tunas and another 25,000 in Guantanamo — including the nearly the entire coastal city of Baracoa.

At dawn Sunday, the government began evacuating people who live near dams and along rivers, particularly Cuba's largest _ the flood-prone Cauto River in Granma province.

The AIN government news agency reported intense evacuations were underway of Cauto Cristo, Rio Cauto and Jiguani, which are on the hurricane's path and suffered tremendous flooding during Hurricane Noel last year.

Thousands of boarding school students were sent home Saturday afternoon, and 13,000 tourists were evacuated from the Varadero beach resort in Matanzas, east of Havana.

"All the people who have the biggest risks have evacuated. People go to the homes of their neighbors and family who have better, stronger structures," said Rafael Fernandez, who was helping protect a friend's Guantanamo home Sunday afternoon. "It's drizzling already. I have to go. I need to protect the door."

Authorities urged people who live in homes with tile roofs to leave and head for sturdier shelter. Officials worried about dams, which by Sunday were already at 80 percent capacity.

In Las Tunas, at least 209 shelters opened.

"Saving lives is our first priority," Machado Ventura told Cubavision. "In second place, we have to protect our resources. The storm last week affected our economy and resources tremendously. What we have left, we have to protect to the maximum."

In Guantanamo province, president of the civil defense council Rene Gamboa said wind gusts of up to 81 mph began sweeping the province early Sunday afternoon. Sustained winds were at about 37 mph, he said.

"We're seeing 12 to 15 foot waves," Gamboa said on the news. "In the last 24 hours, we've already had two inches of rain."

By 11 a.m. Sunday, electrical poles were collapsing.

In Havana, residents seemed largely oblivious. Children played with spinning tops and rode their bikes through the streets. Fishermen cast lines off the seawall as tourists were relaxed at open-air cafes.

"Hopefully it won't come through here," said Yusenka, who was selling dolls and other trinkets out of her Old Havana home. "We'll see."

She said she was confident her home would hold up.

Cuban television showed the government's top leadership gathered with civil defense leaders throughout the eastern provinces. Footage of President Raul Castro showed him in a dress shirt and tie presiding over a meeting with Cuba's top government ministers and Venezuela's Defense Minister Gustavo Reyes, who is visiting Havana to help with Gustav damages.

Unlike his brother Fidel _ who would spend hours on television directing storm preparations _ Raul Castro kept a low profile.

"It's raining very heavily now and some strong winds are blowing," Rosel Ramirez, director of an orphanage in Holguin, said by telephone. "Hurricanes are dangerous. And this province does not have a lot of experience with hurricanes."

The children were prepared for the storm psychologically by talking to them and showing them images of what happened with Gustav last week. The children, he said, were not nervous.

"They are quiet. They almost don't seem Cuban," he said with a laugh.