The U.S. military sent home two more war-on-terror detainees, both to Algeria, and canceled Red Cross visits to other prisoners Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Gustav at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The latest transfer reduced the prison camps' population to ''approximately 260,'' according to a short announcement issued Tuesday by the Pentagon.

It provided no details on the second repatriation of the long-held captives to the North African nation.

Guantánamo naval station and prison camp officers were battening down the hatches to prepare for hurricane-strength winds that could buffet the 45-square-mile base on Wednesday morning.

At the sprawling detention center compound overlooking the Caribbean, guards were poised to move a few captives from open-air cells at Camp Delta to hardened steel and cement buildings called Camps 5 and 6.

The open-air cells, made of welded steel and metal mesh, are technically strong enough to withstand hurricane winds. But guards could move the detainees as a precaution, depending on a late afternoon hurricane update.

''The camps themselves, they can handle up to a Category 2. So we'll hunker down and ride out the storm and share the same risk as the detainees, side by side with them,'' said Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy commander of prison camp operations.

Zanetti also said in an interview with The Miami Herald that there was no risk to former CIA-held ''high-value detainees'' being held at a secret location at the isolated outpost.

''We're taking good care of the high-value detainees,'' he said, offering no specifics. "We'll make sure they're not at risk.''

Prison commanders canceled detainee visits with a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday, as well as meetings between U.S. civilian lawyers and long-held captives who are suing for their freedom in federal court.

The Red Cross delegation arrived Monday and was able to see some detainees, said Zanetti. Military lawyers bound for the base to meet clients facing trial by war court scratched their trip, he added.

The weather Tuesday was partly cloudy but Zanetti said he diverted military staff that usually escort the delegates and attorneys to hurricane preparation.

Hurricanes historically have swept past Guantánamo.

But in case of a path that would predict a straight, potentially catastrophic hit, the military has provisional plans to evacuate the prison camps entirely and move the 260 or so detainees to hardened, emptied ammunition bunkers -- an unlikely event.

At the main portion of the base, meantime, preparations were in full tilt after the base commander declared an 8 a.m. alert that warned the 8,000 or so civilian and military residents that a hurricane could be less than 48 hours away.

Sailors' kids and other child residents went to school, as usual, said spokesman Bruce Lloyd, while senior staff got weather briefings and studied hurricane charts.

In the residential areas, troops and civilian employees living in suburban-style housing secured their lawn furniture and trash cans, per Navy instructions.

Public works staff stacked sandbags at the commissary and parked heavy debris-cleaning equipment in the parking lot at Guantánamo's downtown Lyceum cinema, where Wednesday night's scheduled first-run Hollywood feature was The Love Guru.

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