Hurricane Ian hits Cuba as Category 3 storm
HAVANA: Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Cuba early Tuesday, with the Caribbean nation and the US state of Florida ramping up preparations for high winds and potential flooding.
About 50,000 people in Cuba’s western Pinar del Rio province moved to safer locations, 6,000 of them to state-run shelters and the rest to the homes of relatives and friends, local authorities said.
“Ian is already over Cuban territory,” said a meteorologist from the institute in a special broadcast on state television. “The outer wall of the storm is on the coast of the province of Pinar del Rio.”
The US National Hurricane Center had warned in an advisory issued early Tuesday that Ian had strengthened into a major Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
“The maximum winds are now estimated to be 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts,” it said.
In Florida, the city of Tampa was under a hurricane watch, and Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in all 67 counties as officials scrambled to prepare for the storm’s forecast landing on Wednesday or Thursday.
Ian “will bring heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge, along with isolated tornado activity along Florida’s Gulf Coast,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tallahassee on Monday.
He warned people to prepare for power cuts.
“Even if the eye of the storm doesn’t hit your region, you’re going to have really significant winds, it’s going to knock over trees, it’s going to cause interruptions,” DeSantis said, warning of likely flooding.
The governor urged residents to stock up on food, water, medicine and fuel, and he called up 7,000 National Guard members to help with the effort. — AFP