24. Ike pounds Cuba

Hurricane Ike pounded northeastern Cuba with 120 mile per hour (195 kph) winds, torrential rains and massive waves that rolled through coastal towns on Sunday on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico oil fields and possibly New Orleans, the city swamped in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Gustav narrowly missed New Orleans last Monday - Photonews by Jeff Franks, Reuters.