Having become a major hurricane on Tuesday, Ian struck the west coast of Cuba, announced the country’s meteorology institute, while in the United States Florida is preparing to be touched in turn.
by (with AFP)
Accompanied by winds reaching 185 km/h, Hurricane Ian touched Earth in the west of Cuba, Tuesday, September 27, at the start of the day. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the United States had announced, a few hours earlier, that Ian had strengthened in category 3 “major hurricane” (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
As early as Monday morning, Cuban civil defense had made a “cyclonic alert” for the six most western provinces of the island: Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Cienfuegos and the island of Juventud, 340 kilometers south of the capital. The waves reached 5 to 7 meters in height. Authorities have evacuated some 50,000 people to Pinar del Rio, 6,000 of whom were placed in shelters, the rest of the refugees being sheltered from relatives or friends.
In the capital, Havana, where 2.1 million people live, long queues have formed to access certain food businesses. The fishermen put their boats in the shelter before taking refuge in their homes and residents reinforced their wooden houses.