Hurricane Ike over Cuba, heading for Gulf Coast: NHC

Hurricane Ike was slowly weakening as it beat up Cuba Monday before marching across the Gulf of Mexico and heading for the oil-rich Texas-Louisiana coast later in the week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast in its 8 a.m. EDT report.
Ike was weakening over central Cuba but still packing Category 2 strength with winds near 100 miles per hour.
The NHC expects Ike to emerge from Cuba in about 36 hours as a strong tropical storm with winds of 39-73 miles per hour, then strengthen back into a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 111 to 130 mph within 96 hours.
The NHC expects the storm to crash into the Gulf Coast possibly as a Category 3 hurricane over the weekend.
Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas infrastructure along the coast.silk road gold
Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops like citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast to Texas.wow gold
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, the NHC said there was less than a 20 percent chance the remnants of Josephine would reorganize over the next 48 hours. The remnants were located about 1,200 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands.rappelz rupee
The Leeward Islands include the Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Martin, Barbuda, Antigua, Montserrat and Guadeloupe.