Cubans dashed to food shops and battened down their homes on Saturday as Hurricane Michelle, which could be the worst storm to hit them in half a century, gained strength south of the Caribbean's largest island. 
Having already killed at least 10, left 26 missing and made thousands homeless in Central America, Michelle intensified dramatically overnight and was packing winds of up to 135 mph (215 kph) as it crept north toward Cuba early in the afternoon. 
"It's an imminent threat. It's the most dangerous one we have had in the last 50 years," said the Cuban Weather Institute's chief meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, predicting the storm would be upon western Cuba by Sunday. 
State TV, totally given over to hurricane preparations, displayed images from a 1932 hurricane that flattened the unprepared northern coastal town of Santa Cruz del Norte, killing more than 3,000 people. 
Having turned into a Category Four hurricane in the morning, Michelle is now capable of inflicting heavy damage when it likely crosses near western Cuba. But authorities were confident several days of preparations and the evacuation of 160,000 people would minimize damage and prevent loss of life. 
"It's not very nice to be visited by a cyclone now," President Fidel Castro said in a TV address late on Friday. "But no one's in a panic ... . We're calm, serene and secure." 
In Havana, home to 2 million of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants, residents formed large lines to buy food, cleaned debris off the streets and taped up their windows. Many were evacuated out of the deteriorated coastal capital's danger-zones near the sea and in Old Havana. 
"I've sent my son out to buy some candles and I'm stocking up on drinking water. Let's see what happens," a 68-year-old housewife, Virgen Rodriguez, said in a line outside a supermarket in the Vedado district of Havana. 
"Everyone's out getting basic foods, soda drinks, biscuits, eggs, pasta," added another shopper, Miriam. 
All of Cuba's western and central provinces were on hurricane watch as the fringes of Michelle began to whip up 13-foot waves off the southern coast and send heavy rains and winds across the island. 
Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly in low-lying coastal areas, were being evacuated, as Cuba's grass-roots organizations -- all affiliated with the ruling Communist Party -- mobilized the nation in a military-like operation. 
Work crews secured cables, lamp posts and drains, as Cuba's neighborhood groups, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs), organized the collection of rubbish and loose materials on the streets. 
Authorities began moving hundreds of tourists and tourism workers off beach resorts. Some incoming flights from Mexico and Canada were suspended, as well as domestic flights to southern islands. 
At 1 p.m. EST Michelle's center was about 175 miles south-southeast of Cuba's western tip at latitude 19.4 north and longitude 84.2 west, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. 
Cuba's Weather Institute said it was moving north at about 4 mph and would likely first affect an exposed island off Cuba's south coast, the Isle of Youth, which some say was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." 
EN ROUTE FOR FLORIDA? 
The hurricane was expected to veer northeast after passing Cuba, but it was too early to say if it would slip by just south of Florida or roll right over it, said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. 
Trisha Wallace, a National Hurricane Center forecaster, called Michelle the most intense storm of this hurricane season. "It could be a dangerous storm, even if it grazes you," she said. 
Authorities declared a state of emergency in Florida early on Saturday. Tourists and residents of mobile homes and low-lying areas were being evacuated from the Florida Keys. 
A powerboat race scheduled for this weekend, which was set to bring throngs of visitors to the Keys, was canceled. 
In Miami-Dade and Broward counties in south Florida, already flooded parts of low-lying neighborhoods were being drained in anticipation of heavy rainfall. Fierce wind and heavy surf have been eroding the beaches for days, bringing the sea to the doorsteps of beach-side businesses and residences. 
Before developing into a hurricane, Michelle swamped Jamaica with torrential rains and left at least 10 dead in Central America.