By SIMEON SANCHEZ

Staff Writer

Michelle peaked as a category four hurricane last weekend when it rolled over Cuba, leaving some 2,000 homes destroyed. Measured out of a possible five categories on the Saffir/Simpson scale, Michelle was the strongest hurricane to hit Cuba in decades. Last week the storm killed 12 people in Honduras, Nicaragua and Jamaica as it gained momentum. When it struck Cuba on Sunday night, its winds were estimated at 135 mph, and later on, when it reached the center of the country, it had slowed to a category two with winds at 110 mph.

By Sunday the Cuban government had evacuated 750,000 people from vulnerable areas and cut electricity in Havana to avoid accidents with severed cables. On Monday the rains had ceased over most of the island, giving officials the chance to observe damage. Collapsing buildings led to the deaths of four people throughout the country. 23 homes in Havana were destroyed, with many more expected to crumble as they dry in the sun.

Michelle struck the important sugar-producing Matanzas province, where acres of sugarcane were leveled and 20 sugar mills were severely damaged. The crop will have to be collected by hand, which will cost more time and money.

``[It] surely has done damage to all agriculture - to sugarcane, to forests, to plantains,'' President Fidel Castro said, according to the Associated Press. Coffee, banana and citrus crops are also expected to be heavily wasted, though damage reports come slowly in a country where telephone lines have been toppled. An estimated one million chickens were killed or injured in Matanzas, damaging the province's important egg industry. Before the hurricane struck, workers rushed to pick tobacco in the fields of Pinar Del Rio, where leaves for Cuba's famous cigars are grown.

Early Monday, the Bahamas were drenched with rain. The capital of Nassau was hit with 85 mph winds and residents endured blackouts and quick flooding.

``We have a car outside that is underwater,'' said Nassau resident Jackie Albury, according to the Associated Press. The Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association evacuated the residents of an island with low terrain.

The storm brushed by Florida on its way to the Bahamas, causing little damage in a state that had braced itself for Michelle's impact. Friday Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency in Florida; a subsequent evacuation order emptied the Florida Keys of residents and tourists.

Winds of tropical storm magnitude struck the Keys and regions near Miami before dissipating. Some beaches in Miami-Dade County suffered the year's worst erosion from powerful waves, but nobody was hurt.

Nicaragua and Honduras were not so fortunate. Honduras was drenched with half its annual rainfall in a matter of days, and ten people were confirmed dead. Nicaraguan officials say that 10,000 people have been made homeless by the hurricane. Tidal surges and floods destroyed bridges in Cuba and left many without food or shelter.

Both countries are still recovering from damages caused by the disasterous hurricane Mitch in 1998, when some 20,000 people were killed in the region.

On its present course toward the northeast, Michelle is forecasted to die out somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.