Cuba was left reeling yesterday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island and knocked out the country’s power grid.
The magnitude of the impact remained unclear through the early hours of the day, but forecasters warned that Hurricane Rafael could bring “life-threatening” storm surges, winds and flash floods to Cuba after ravaging parts of the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.
On Wednesday evening, massive waves lashed at Havana’s shores as sharp winds and rain whipped at the historic cityscape, leaving trees littered on flooded roads. Much of the city was dark and deserted.
Photo: Reuters
As it plowed across Cuba, the storm slowed to a Category 2 hurricane chugging into the Gulf of Mexico near northern Mexico and southern Texas, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Last month, the island was hit by a one-two punch. First, Cuba was roiled by island-wide blackouts stretching on for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis.
Shortly after, it was struck by another powerful hurricane that killed at least six people in the eastern part of the island.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis, which has pushed many to migrate from Cuba.
While the US Department of State issued a travel warning for Cuba because of the story, the Cuban government also raised an alarm, asking citizens to hunker down.
Thousands of people in the west of the island were evacuated as a preventative measure, and many more like Silvia Perez, a 72-year-old retiree living in a coastal area of Havana, scrambled to prepare.
“This is a night I don’t want to sleep through, between the battering air and the trees,” Perez said. “I’m scared for my friends and family.”
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