Hurricane Rafael left Cuba on Wednesday night, leaving the island in darkness due to a widespread blackout and destruction in some towns, after hitting as a powerful Category 3 hurricane.
The Cuban Government recognized this Wednesday in its first evaluation of damage after the hurricane passed through the west of the islandthe government said that the effects on housing, infrastructure and agriculture have been “very strong.”
The cyclone made landfall at 4:20 p.m. local time on the southern coast of the province of Artemisa and left Cuban territory more than two hours later on the northern coast of Pinar del Río.
The Meteorological Institute (Insmet) of Cuba measured winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour and recorded intense rains, of up to 200 millimeters (or liters per square meter).
The country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, wrote on social networks at the end of a meeting of the National Defense Council that “major damage has been reported in Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana,” three western provinces.
In Candelaria, a town of 20,000 inhabitants located 75 km southwest of Havana and very close to the point where Rafael entered the island, torrential rains were falling with winds that strongly shook the treetops, AFP journalists confirmed early on. .
Another massive blackout on the island
The island is without electrical service due to the passage of the cyclone itself. “Strong winds caused by the highly intense hurricane Rafael caused the disconnection of the national electrical system,” the state-run Unión Eléctrica indicated on the X network.
The hurricane is expected to cross the island and exit into the Gulf of Mexico where it will begin to lose strength.
Continuous winds and rain affected Havana on Wednesday. In the capital, with two million inhabitants, businesses were closed and fuel pumps were removed from several gas stations, while the streets looked almost empty.
Evacuations in Artemisa and Pinar del Río
Thousands of people were evacuated in the coastal towns of Artemisa and Pinar del Río, where the eye of the hurricane is expected to enter.
“There is not a soul” here, Marisol Valle, a 63-year-old woman, told AFP as she tried to take some furniture before the water reached her home near the sea, in Guanimar, a fishing town about 70 kilometers away. from Havana.
In the adjacent town of Alquizar, Liset Herrera, 57, complained Tuesday that she had not been able to watch the news on television due to a lack of electricity.
“But from what I have seen on the phone” the hurricane is approaching “and if it passes, there will be nothing left here,” he lamented.
Flights, public transport and classes paralyzed
According to the official Granma newspaper, “air operations” were suspended in the western region of the country, a measure that includes the airports of Havana and the famous resort of Varadero, in the neighboring province of Matanzas.
Likewise, classes were interrupted in several provinces. In Havana and other towns in western Cuba, the public passenger transport service also stopped.
Venezuela sends help
A ship with more than 300 tons of humanitarian aid left Venezuela this Wednesday for Cuba, in response to the impact of hurricanes in the island country, the most recent Rafael, category 3.
From Puerto Cabello, in the state of Carabobo (north), the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, expressed that these tons were “collected by the people” as a “message of solidarity with sister” Cuba, which has been a “victim.” of two very important weather events in recent days.”
jc (afp, efe)