Tropical Storm Paloma churns over Cuba

By Jeff Franks

HAVANA (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paloma churned over Cuba on Sunday with rapidly weakening winds and a poorly defined center that prompted sharply conflicting assessments about the storm's status from forecasters in the United States and Cuba.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Paloma, the third hurricane to hit Cuba this year, still had top winds near 60 miles per hour (95 kph) and was located over the eastern central province of Camaguey.

But the Cuban weather service said the storm did not even qualify now as a tropical depression and stopped issuing advisories.

Cuba chief hurricane forecaster Jose Rubiera said light winds and rains were all that were left of the storm that came ashore in southeastern Cuba on Saturday evening as a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph (193 kph) winds.

Both services agreed that winds high in the atmosphere were tearing Paloma apart.

The U.S. hurricane center said the storm was moving at just 2 mph (3 kph) and it had dropped tropical storm warnings for the Bahamas, which had been projected as Paloma's next destination.

At its peak on Saturday in the Caribbean Sea, Paloma was a menacing Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale with 145 mph (230 kph) winds.

Before reaching Cuba, Paloma ripped across the Cayman Islands, causing damage and flooding on smaller islands of the wealthy British territory.