Tropical Storm Fay, which killed at least 57 people in other Caribbean countries over the weekend, slammed into Cuba’s southwestern coast yesterday on a path expected to take it to Florida as a likely hurricane.
Cuba’s Meteorological Institute said the storm’s northwesterly movement had slowed to 16kph and was passing about 72km to the south-southeast of Playa Giron, also known as the Bay of Pigs, site of the failed 1961 US-backed invasion to topple then-Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Cuban officials ordered evacuations ahead of Fay, including low-lying parts of Havana, fearing that heavy rains and a storm surge could flood the Cuban capital and cause dilapidated buildings to collapse.
Cuba had earlier evacuated people along its southeastern and central coasts as Fay slid along, brushing the area with the winds and rain it now carries inland.
Jamaica said a middle-aged couple died in the capital, Kingston, when their car was caught in a flooded crossing.
Fay was to hit Cuba with 80kph winds and could drop as much as 203mm of rain as it crosses the island, forecasters said.
In the Florida Keys, tourists fleeing Fay, the sixth storm of the Atlantic cyclone season, created bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway out of the islands at the state’s tip.
Nearly 25,000 people were evacuated from the Keys area on Sunday.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch was in place for Florida and Cuba.
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