page_title: Hurricane Ike
section_title: Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Ike / Preparations / Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas
caption_attribution_description: English: Hurricane Ike approaching Cuba
context_page_description: Hurricane Ike was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a similar track to the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The ninth tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, Ike developed from a tropical wave west of Cape Verde on September 1 and strengthened to a peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane over the open waters of the central Atlantic on September 4 as it tracked westward. Several fluctuations in strength occurred before Ike made landfall on eastern Cuba on September 8. The hurricane weakened prior to continuing into the Gulf of Mexico, but increased its intensity by the time of its final landfall in Galveston, Texas on September 13 before becoming an extratropical storm on September 14. The remnants of Ike continued to track across the United States and into Canada, causing considerable damage inland, before dissipating on the next day.
  Ike was blamed for at least 195 deaths.
context_section_description: Fearing a repeat of Hurricane Donna in 1960, the overseas branch of the British Red Cross began preparing contingency plans for 2,000 families considered to be at risk from Ike. A group of 260 Chinese construction workers stuck on Middle Caicos after the passage of Hurricane Hanna were evacuated by the British Red Cross. Immediately before the storm struck, 348 people on Grand Turk were put into emergency shelters.
caption: Hurricane Ike approaching Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane
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