Sawt Falasteen - Cubans flee the coast as Hurricane Melissa looms

Carrying loved ones and a handful of quickly snatched belongings, families trekked along narrow paths slick with mud and fringed by dense greenery, heading to relative safety.

Others, visibly distraught, squeezed onto crowded buses -- gripping handrails and bags -- or loaded onto lorries waiting to be spirited away.

Already, curtains of rain, dark skies, and raging seas have touched Cuba.

"It scares me, but what scares me even more is being away from home and having everything I own taken away," 82-year-old Floraida Duany told AFP.

The storm is expected to make landfall on the Communist-run island in the early hours of Wednesday.

Cubans are used to such tempests. But this is one of the strongest storms to hit the Caribbean in years.

For days, residents of Santiago de Cuba, the second city, have been making preparations.

Men hacked loose branches off trees and piled them to be taken away, for fear they would become projectiles capable of claiming life or limb.

Vendors shuttered buildings, and neighbors queued at stands, stuffing bags with fruit and provisions.

Fuel shortages and power cuts are expected. Residents filled jugs and buckets before the water was shut off, knowing the electric company planned to cut power once the winds exceeded 60 kilometers per hour.

In the city's main park, silence replaced the usual buzz of activity.

By Tuesday, it was time to evacuate.

On the coastal road at Playa Canizo, a man in a straw hat and sodden fatigues, clasping an equally wet suitcase, thrust out his left arm, hoping for a ride to safety.

Troops joined the evacuation effort, lifting the elderly into trucks and guiding families toward shelters.

One soldier aided an older woman, her body wrapped in a poncho as the clouds thickened above.

Melissa's winds are forecast to hit Cuba at more than 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, threatening to rip through homes and topple trees.

But Cubans were optimistic about riding out this storm as they have so many others.

"It is a very powerful natural event, but thanks to God and thanks to the preparation provided by the state, we Cubans are ready," said 68-year-old Jorge Eduardo.

A.AlHaj--SF-PST