Hurricane Oscar: Strong storm with speed of 130 kilometers per hour hits Cuba

The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Hurricane Oscar made landfall in Cuba on Sunday afternoon.

The tropical storm gained momentum and became category 1 hurricane Before reaching the coast of Cuba guantanamoNear the city of Baracoa (south-east of the country), at 5:50 pm local time (9:50 pm GMT).

Meteorological event reaches island with maximum sustained winds 130 kilometers per hour and was moving northwest at 11 kilometers per hour, the NHC said.

“We checked the actions to deal with Hurricane Oscar in the east of the country. Precise instructions were given to ensure the care of our people. Support to the provinces has been strengthened and the brigades prepared for recovery in the shortest possible time Has gone.” The Cuban President wrote this Sunday, Miguel Diaz-Canel

On the social network X.

The island has a solid history of dealing with typhoons, with effective civil defense and an extensive network of shelters.

The NHC predicts that Hurricane Oscar will change course this Monday and leave the island region by late night or early Tuesday and move northeast.

“By mid-week, heavy rainfall from Oscar will cause landslides as well as significant and potentially life-threatening flash flooding in parts of eastern Cuba, particularly in the Sierra Maestra. Additionally , Localized flash flooding may occur in the southeastern Bahamas.” NHC predicted.

arrival of storm oscar occurs in the middle of A severe power crisis on the island, which left most of its residents without electricity due to continuous failures in the system over the past three days.

The Cuban government said electricity service would return to normal starting Monday night, although there would be users who would be without power until Tuesday.

The island’s main power plant failed on Friday, leaving 10 million people – almost the entire Cuban population – without power.

The supply was partially restored on Saturday before being disrupted again overnight.

Communist president blames US sanctionsPreventing vital supplies and spare parts from reaching Cuba has been going on for decades.

“Sometimes people think that no, it’s incompetence, that they don’t want to do (repairs), that they want to harass people. We have two problems today: One, that we don’t have that fuel. is what we need, and second, we are not able to make the repairs,” Díaz-Canel said Friday.

“It all happens through currencies. Currency that we don’t have because of financial oppression, and fuel that we don’t have because of energy oppression.And this is the blockade, the intense blockade at this time,” he said.

“There are people here who don’t want people to talk about the blockade,” he said.

Diaz-Canel said that even after repairs to the electrical system these days, the country will continue to face an energy emergency.

Subscribe here Visit our new newsletter every Friday to receive a selection of our best content of the week.

And remember you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest versions and activate them.