Hurricanes

Hurricane Bertha wheezed out Saturday and shrank into a tropical storm that raked the Northeast with wind and pounding rain while emergency crews dealt with a tangle of death and damage that lay in its wake. A surfer was killed off New Jersey on Friday as the upper Atlantic reacted in angry anticipation of Bertha's arrival. It brought the storm toll to 10: Two other deaths were reported in Florida, one in North Carolina and six in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Martin.

Hundreds of thousands of coastal residents from Florida to North Carolina moved inland Wednesday while forecasters puzzled over the eventual path of Hurricane Bertha, which was slow dancing northward off the Eastern Seaboard. A long-anticipated turn to the north seemed to steer Bertha and its 100-mph winds away from Florida, but forecasters warned that the South Carolina shore, North Carolina's Outer Banks and other barrier islands could be in danger by today or Friday.

Hurricane Bertha, a massive storm which quickly bulked up into a monster while ripping through the Caribbean, was making its way toward the eastern seaboard of the United States on Tuesday night. The National Weather Service issued hurricane watches for Georgia, and South and North Carolina, and a tropical storm warning for Florida. A watch means the hurricane could come close to the area within 36 hours.

After battering St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a strengthening Hurricane Bertha rolled along just off the north coast of Puerto Rico Monday afternoon, lashing the capital city of San Juan with punishing winds, rain and seas of 6 feet or more before moving on toward the Bahamas. A Venezuelan ship carrying 42 people was reported in trouble and drifting off the Puerto Rican coast in sustained winds of 85 mph, the Coast Guard said. One surfer drowned in the U.S.

The Cuban government said Saturday that it will return to American donors boxes of rice, beans and powdered milk destined for hurricane victims that it says were marked with "counterrevolutionary propaganda." The rest of the 32 tons of U.S.-donated food--about 24 tons--will be distributed, Prensa Latina, Cuba's official news agency, said in a dispatch from Havana. The dispatch was monitored in Mexico City.

Leaving eight people dead in its wake across Central America, Hurricane Lili closed in on Cuba with 118-mph winds and unloaded rain on already saturated southern Florida. News reports out of Cuba said 28,000 residents had been evacuated from low-lying central and western coastal areas, and 100,000 students were sent home. Cuba also said it was ready to evacuate 86,000 people in the Havana area. The hurricane was expected to cross Cuba early today.

President Fidel Castro toured Cuba on Friday, vowing to win the "battle against nature" after Hurricane Lili slashed the island with 90-mph winds and driving rains, collapsing buildings and forcing thousands of residents from their homes. Castro, who had warned of possible "catastrophic" damage from the hurricane, welcomed 100 of the country's 30,000 evacuees into the Revolution Palace, where his Cabinet meets. "You have to feel as if at home here," Castro said as they arrived Thursday night.

Hurricane Lili tore off roofs, swamped banana farms and disrupted communication across the Bahamas on Saturday, a day after battering Cuba's crucial sugar and coffee crops. But the damage was scattered and no serious injuries were reported. "We were lucky," said acting Police Commissioner Erold Farquahar. Lili headed east into the Atlantic on Saturday after bashing the islands of the Bahamas overnight with sustained winds of 95 mph and wind gusts of more than 100 mph.

Damage estimates mounted Thursday from Hurricane Fran's deadly rampage across North Carolina last week, with the state's insurance commissioner predicting that claims would hit $1 billion by the weekend. Although winds were strongest at the coast, inland agricultural areas were hardest hit by flooding and rain. So far, farm losses of all sorts have reached $616 million, including $341 million in crop and livestock damage, according to the state's Department of Agriculture.

A hurricane watch was issued Saturday for the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as Tropical Storm Hortense moved toward the Caribbean and gained strength, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm warnings also were in effect from Martinique in the eastern Caribbean northwestward to Puerto Rico. A hurricane watch indicates that hurricane conditions are expected within 36 hours.