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. (Hurricane Ike can be seen in this satellite image taken earlier this weekend as the well-formed hurricane following Hanna toward the United States.)

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 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 Caucus island chain before dawn Sunday as people in the British territory sought refuge in emergency shelters or in their homes (see more below).

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ike’s eye was passing over the Turks and Caicos early Sunday. It was moving west about 15 mph on a path that would take it by the southeastern Bahamas later Sunday and near eastern Cuba Sunday night or early Monday