Igor a Major Hurricane, Cuba Safe

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Sept. 12 — Hurricane Igor jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm on Sunday and now packs maximum sustained winds of 220 kph (140 mph) at 6:00 p.m. EST.  No threat to Cuba is thus far being projected by the Cuban Meteorological Institute.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami sees Igor moving west-northwest in the coming days and possibly heading towards Bermuda by next weekend.  The hurricane is not expected to touch ground anywhere in the Caribbean region.

Cuba was battered by three devastating hurricanes in 2008 (Gustav, Ike and Paloma) and has thus far been spared from such destruction in both 2009 and 2010.