Given Ike's existing organization even after passing over Cuba for a day and a half, combined with the rapid reformation of the core, that Ike is heading toward the loop current has me quite worried as to his potential.

Shewtinstar, if you look at the Hurricane Heat Potential link I provided in my above post, the orange finger sticking up into the Gulf is the Loop Current. It is a relatively stationary current that cycles water vertically causing the water to be very warm very deep, and thus providing excellent power source for hurricanes.