HAVANA (AFP) -- Hurricane Ike assaulted Cuba on Monday with monster waves and torrential rains after leaving 61 people dead in Haiti, where a series of vicious storms has triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Nearly two million of Cuba's 11 million population were being evacuated and all 14 provinces were on maximum alert as the storm hammered its way across the southern end of the Caribbean island.

The storm drove seven-meter (23-foot) waves onto Cuba's eastern coastline as it came ashore late Sunday Monday, destroying a yet to-be-counted number of homes.
Cuban authorities said seven people had been injured but none killed in the storm.
"I'm 59, I have seen a lot of hurricanes, but I have never seen one that caused so much destruction," an unnamed resident of Camaguey told Cuban television by phone.