Four people are reported dead and at least two million people have fled their homes on Cuba as the second hurricane in under a week rakes across the island.

The refugees - around 15 per cent of Cuba's 11 million population - include 170,000 evacuated last night from vulnerable parts of the capital, Havana, where the storm has yet to hit.

Although Ike is now downgraded to a category one hurricane with sustained winds of 130kph (80mph), it was dumping enough rain to cause flash floods and mudslides.

Coming hard on the heels of hurricanes Hanna and Gustav, Ike claimed at least 66 lives as it hit Haiti. But storm deaths are relatively rare in Cuba, where an estimated 140,000 homes were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Gustav ten days ago.

“In all of Cuba’s history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together,” said Jose Rubiera, head of the country's meteorological service.

Officials said that Ike was expected to skirt Havana today before moving out over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where the bulk of US oil refineries are located, regaining strength as it churns toward the Texas coast. It is as yet unclear where the storm would head next and forecasters said that it could make land anywhere from Louisiana to Mexico.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said yesterday that it had already evacuated 150 workers and would move its remaining 500 employees in the Gulf by tomorrow.

Ike plowed across the Turks and Caicos and southern Bahamas as a category four storm at the weekend, causing extensive damage but no reported deaths.

Worst affected was Haiti, where four storms in three weeks have killed more than 600 people and left hundreds of thousands desperate for food, clean water and shelter. Aid operations are still continuing in the stricken town of Gonaives, where hundreds were killed in flooding after Tropical Storm Hanna.

As thousands awaited relief, the US Navy deployed a helicopter carrier off Haiti’s coast to help with relief efforts. The USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship loaded with relief supplies, will help move cargo and equipment between Port-au-Prince and Gonaives, Saint-Marc and other stricken areas.

Ike came ashore on Cuba on Sunday night, driving seven-metre (23ft) waves onto the island's eastern coastline and destroying an unknown number of homes in Camaguey province.

In Holguin province, electric poles were knocked flat on roads, trees blown down and roofs shredded, according to television reports. Cuban television reported that both President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel were monitoring the storm “minute by minute”.

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