KEY WEST, Fla. -- Powerful Hurricane Ike rolled down an uncertain path Sunday that may lead to the U.S. Gulf Coast late this week, forcing emergency officials to pay attention and leaving millions of people from Florida to Mexico to wonder where it will eventually strike.

Officials in the Florida Keys started a phased evacuation for residents Sunday morning after telling visitors a day earlier to get out. Ike, a dangerous Category 4 storm with winds early Sunday of near 135 mph, was forecast to affect the Keys starting Monday night on a potential track for the central Gulf.

Ike roared across the low-lying Turks and Caicos island chain before dawn Sunday as people in the British territory sought refuge in emergency shelters or in their homes.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ike's eye had passed over Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas and was about 15 miles west-southwest of the island. It was moving west about 13 mph on a path that was expected to take it through the southeastern Bahamas and near or over eastern Cuba Sunday night and central Cuba late Monday.

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