* Tropical Storm Paula's top winds drop to 45 mph (75 kph)
* Power outages, flooding in parts of Cuban capital
* Storm centered east of Havana near Varadero beach resort (Updates with storm weakening, location, details)
By Jeff Franks
HAVANA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Paula weakened further on Thursday after blasting through the Cuban capital with driving rains and high winds that toppled trees, flooded streets and left large swaths of the city without power.
There were no reports yet of building collapses that usually plague the crumbling capital in stormy weather, nor of any injuries or deaths.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Paula's top sustained winds had dropped to 45 miles per hour (75 kph) after it moved inland in northwestern Cuba and swept eastward.
The storm was skirting along the north central coast 70 miles (112 km) east of Havana, near the beach resort of Varadero, and going east at 14 mph (22 km).
It was likely to be downgraded to a tropical depression on Friday, the Miami-based center said in its latest advisory.
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Paula, a small storm that lost its hurricane strength earlier in the day, crept ashore in northwestern Cuba around noon and moved east across the Caribbean island, where it had been expected to peter out over mountainous terrain.
But the worst of its weather stayed offshore in the Straits of Florida and a small portion dipped down into Havana to whip the city with wind and drenching rains as the storm's eye passed just to the south.
The stormy weather, which lasted about two hours, caused minor flooding around the city and sent waves crashing over the Malecon, the city's famous seaside boulevard. Toppled trees and power lines blocked many streets.
When night fell, much of Havana, a city of 2.2 million people, was in the dark due to widespread power outages.
BREAKING WINDOWS
Aurora, a resident of Central Havana, one of the city's most decrepit areas, said she could hear windows breaking in the neighborhood's old houses as the storm raged outside her home. Inside, she had to keep sweeping rain water out of her kitchen the wind had driven in through a loose window frame.
The ferocity of the storm surprised her because Cuban weather forecasters had predicted Paula would be little more than a rainy tropical depression by the time it reached Havana.
"I was expecting something a little less aggressive. I mean, people were out in the streets, nobody warned us," she said.
Cuban officials were likely surprised, too, because they usually order evacuations ahead of threatening storms, particularly in densely packed Central Havana, where lack of maintenance has left many of its 19th century buildings in precarious condition.
The communist-led government's mandatory evacuation policy is credited with keeping death tolls from hurricanes low.
Earlier on Thursday, wind gusts up to 68 mph (109 kph) had been measured at the northwestern coast where Paula came ashore, the hurricane center said.
Cuba reported its western tip had received 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) of rain in 24 hours.
Cuban state media said about 120 people were evacuated as a precaution from low-lying areas of westernmost province Pinar del Rio, which along with other parts of Cuba was badly hit by destructive hurricanes in 2008.
Pinar del Rio is where the premium tobacco for Cuba's world-famous cigars is grown, but local officials said tobacco fields had been protected and leaves from the previous harvest safely stored.
Paula, the 16th named storm and ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, had not affected offshore oil-producing regions in the Gulf of Mexico.
The hurricane center said a tropical storm watch for the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas had been discontinued.
(Additional reporting by Esteban Israel and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Will Dunham)
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