Cuba is preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Rafael, which is expected to hit the island on Wednesday, at a time when the country is barely recovering from a giant power outage and the passage of Oscar which left eight people dead.
“Rafael strengthened into a hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph” (120 km/h), the American Hurricane Center (NHC) announced Tuesday on X.
The center of the hurricane is located 32 km southeast of the island of Little Cayman in the Caribbean Sea, the American agency added.
Earlier, the NHC warned that the tropical storm, heading towards western Cuba, could become a category 1 (out of 5) hurricane, or even higher, on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Faced with the threat, the Cuban authorities have increased calls for vigilance and preventive measures “to protect the population and safeguard material resources”.
Nine provinces (out of the country’s fifteen), located in the west and center of the island, including that of Havana, have been placed in “cyclonic alert”.
A car passes in front of a gas station dismantled as Hurricane Rafael approaches, in Havana, Cuba, November 5, 2024 / ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP
The Cuban presidency indicated Tuesday afternoon that the “National Defense Council”made up of soldiers, had been “activated”. “In situations of exception and disaster, the National Defense Council directs the country and assumes the powers corresponding to the organs of the State, with the exception of the constituent power”she added.
– “There will be nothing left” –
Civil Defense called on Tuesday for an acceleration of prevention efforts, including the evacuation of vulnerable populations, as the hurricane could have consequences across the entire island.
According to local media, at least 70,000 Cubans have been evacuated to date in several provinces of the country, including more than 66,000 in Guantanamo (east), the province most affected by Hurricane Oscar, and where rain continued to fall. this week, saturating the soil with water.
In Havana, where two million inhabitants live, brigades of workers carried out Tuesday the drainage of sewers, the collection of waste, the pruning of trees, as well as the neutralization of gas stations and fires. traffic located in flood-prone areas of the capital.
Fishermen shelter their boat in Havana, before the arrival of Hurricane Rafael, Cuba, November 5, 2024 / ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP
In the village of Alquizar, located about fifty km southwest of the capital, Liset Herrera, 57, complains of not having “could see the news because there is no electricity”. “But from what I saw on the phone (the hurricane) is getting closer to here”she explains, saying she fears that after her passage “There will be nothing left here”.
Further south, in the coastal village of Ganimar, Marisol Valle, a 63-year-old farmer, came to collect some things. “As far as I see, there is not a soul” in the village where residents were evacuated. “No one stayed”she notes.
Two weeks ago, Cuba had already been hit by Category 1 Hurricane Oscar, which hit the far east of the island on October 20 before transforming into a tropical storm.
Severe flooding surprised residents of two locations in Guantanamo, San Antonio del Sur and Imias, where eight people died.
Oscar came while the island was suffering a general blackout. For four days, the island’s 10 million residents were without power due to a giant blackout that broke out on October 18 following fuel shortages and a breakdown at the main power plant. of the country.
On Thursday, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, recognized that the situation of the electricity system remained “tense” on the island. Since the giant blackout, the country has suffered numerous power cuts due to chronic electricity production deficits.
In September 2022, the island had already experienced a widespread power outage after Hurricane Ian hit the west of the island.
Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis in thirty years. Power cuts are compounded by shortages of food, medicine, fuel and galloping inflation.
