THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610210034
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 45 lines
Bermudans were breathing easier Sunday night as weakening Hurricane Lili churned past to the southeast, en route to oblivion in the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Cubans are cleaning up after a direct hit last week.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami expects Lili to stall in the Atlantic by Tuesday and then be absorbed by the southern end of a low pressure system that has pounded the northeast with high winds and heavy rains.
It will be an inglorious end to a storm that once packed sustained winds of 115 mph, making it the sixth major hurricane this season.
At 5 p.m. Sunday, the center of Lili was located about 155 miles southeast of Bermuda. It was moving toward the northeast near 24 mph.
Maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 85 mph, and additional weakening is likely through today. The storm is expected to become extratropical by Wednesday.
Hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or greater extended up to 85 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds in excess of 39 mph extended 230 miles from the eye.
Lili's end does not mean forecasters have nothing to do, however.
A weak tropical wave was located a few hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles on Sunday evening. Forecasters were tracking it, although thunderstorm activity associated with the system was minimal and development was not considered likely.
In Cuba, farmers and government officials are still assessing the damage.
Uprooted utility poles and flooded sugar cane fields, collapsed houses and damaged sugar mills bear witness to the power of Lili, the first major hurricane to hurt Cuba since Kate struck in 1985.
Official Cuban damage reports indicated that the hurricane might have caused serious harm to an economy strained to near the breaking point by the collapse of Cuba's socialist trading partners in 1989 and 1990.
Agriculture Minister Alfredo Jordan told The Associated Press on Sunday that it would take more than a year to return to production levels recorded at the end of September. ILLUSTRATION: TRACKER'S GUIDE
STEVE STONE
The Virginian-Pilot
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.] by CNB