Hurricane Oscar heading towards eastern Cuba

Havana, (EFE).- The Cuban Meteorological Institute (Insmet) estimates that Hurricane Oscar, a Category 1 (out of five) on the Saffir-Simpson scale, will make landfall this Sunday around 6:00 p.m. local time (0.00 GMT, Monday) near the city of Baracoa in the far east of Cuba.

The report, issued at 3:00 pm local time (20 GMT), forecast that that area of ​​the country could see rainfall of up to 200 milliliters (litres per square metre) and winds reaching speeds of around 120 kilometers per hour. Can be done. However the area affected by Oscar will be much larger and will include the eastern part of the country with varying intensity.

Strong waves are also expected in Guantanamo, Holguín and Las Tunas over the next few hours, with coastal flooding also expected to be “moderate to severe along low-lying areas of this coastline, including the Baracoa sea wall”.

Authorities have ordered cyclone alarm phase for Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma and Las Tunas provinces, while placing Camagüey in alert phase and Ciego de Ávila in information phase.

Oscar’s arrival comes just two days after Cuba’s total blackout, from which it has barely recovered in a very preliminary and unstable manner. Due to this blackout and Hurricane Oscar, the Cuban government has suspended non-essential administrative and educational activities throughout the country until Wednesday.

Authorities also urged the population to stay informed about the development of this system through national media and to follow instructions given by local authorities.

from storm to storm

Oscar became a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday after experiencing quick intensification and is already impacting the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas.

The storm is headed towards Cuba, while the country is suffering an energy crisis due to a massive blackout that began on Friday due to a malfunction at the island’s main thermoelectric plant.

The last time a major hurricane hit Cuba was in 2017, when Irma crossed the island’s northern coast from east to west, killing 10 people and causing material damage.

Oscar is the fifteenth tropical storm of the current Atlantic hurricane season. The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that there will be 17 to 25 hurricanes this year, a higher number than normal.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ended on November 30.