KEY WEST, Fla. -- As a ferocious Hurricane Ike ripped across Cuba, a tropical storm warning was issued for the Florida Keys early today.

Residents from Key West to the Gulf Coast watched Ike's unpredictable path, worrying it could hit anywhere in the U.S. from Texas to Florida.

Still, even with an evacuation order in place for the Keys and the region also under a hurricane watch, many were reluctant to leave, hoping the storm would turn west, sparing this low-lying island chain a devastating blow.

Residents of Key West are a hardy bunch, generations of whom have lived through storms for years.

The biggest worry here was how long it may take to get back home if Ike did strike the Keys, possibly taking out bridges that connect the tiny spits of land.

"How would we get back home?" said Susi Smith, 61, who sat with her husband, Don, watching a spectacularly colorful cloud-puffed sunset in Key West yesterday. "If the bridges went, we'd be stuck."

Ike bore down on Cuba after roaring across other Caribbean islands Sunday, tearing apart houses, wiping out crops and worsening floods in Haiti that have already killed more than 300 people.

With Ike forecast to sweep across Cuba through today and tomorrow, and possibly hit Havana head-on, hundreds of thousands of Cubans evacuated to shelters or higher ground. To the north, about 15,000 tourists had already fled the Florida Keys up a narrow mostly two-lane highway.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said powerful Ike roared ashore in eastern Cuba last night.

The hurricane center said Ike slammed into Cuba's Holguin province at 9:45 p.m. EDT as a dangerous Category 3 storm. The hurricane weakened to a Category 2 storm early today as it moved over Cuba.

Meteorologist Todd Kimberlain said Ike was walloping easternmost Cuba with strong winds and moving mostly on a westward course that could rake the island nation.

Kimberlain said the storm is expected to re-emerge sometime tomorrow over the Caribbean island's western coast before taking aim next at the Gulf of Mexico and possibly the lower Keys in Florida.

Forecasters were urging coastal residents all along the Gulf from Florida to Mexico to be watching as Ike takes its uncertain path.

And once again, New Orleans -- still recovering from the weaker-than-expected Hurricane Gustav -- is in the crosshairs.

-- The Associated Press