Hurricane Ike's winds and massive storm surge ripped apart houses and toppled trees Monday as the deadly storm roared across Cuba toward Havana and its historic but decaying old buildings.

With powerful Hurricane Ike on an uncertain course toward the Gulf of Mexico, many on the low-lying Florida Keys took a wait-and-see approach to evacuating Sunday.

As the senior forecaster there, Lixion Avila frequently consults with colleagues in Cuba and he has found himself drawing the lines that drive a Category 4 monster completely through his homeland ? and directly at his aged mother in Havana.

Ike is still far out in the Atlantic, but it's getting a close look from those who weathered 1992's Andrew, the devastating Category 5 storm against which all other Florida hurricanes are measured.

Hundreds of people fled Gonaives, Haiti, on Saturday for higher ground as powerful Hurricane Ike threatened to unleash heavy rain and compound a disaster caused by a previous storm.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Friday that he is unlikely to delay plans for an important test in North Carolina that could disrupt television service for some viewers in the path of Tropical Storm Hanna.