Havana: Cuba evacuated 180,000 people amid fears Sunday that Elsa tropical storms could cause severe flooding after beating several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people.
The Cuban government opens a shelter and moves to protect sugar cane and cocoa plants in front of the storm, which is offshore moving along the southern coast of Cuba Sunday night.
Most of them were evacuated to go to relatives, while some people were protected at government facilities.
Hundreds who live in mountainous areas take refuge in natural caves prepared for emergencies.
The next storm target is Florida, where GOV.
Ron Desantis stated an emergency in 15 districts, including in Miami-Dade, where a high-rise condo building last week.
The center of Elsa is near the South Coast of Cuba on Sunday night, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Cabo Cruz, and moves northwest at 15 mph (24 kph).
It has a maximum sustainable wind of around 60 mph (95 kph), said the national storm center in Miami.
The center said the storm was expected to gradually weaken when passing Central Cuba on Monday.
`” After Elsa appeared in the Florida Strait and the Southeast Gulf of Mexico, some reinforcement might be possible, “he said.
Rain fell intermittently in the eastern province of Cuba all day Sunday when the storm passed south.
`So far the rain is soft and calm.
There is no rain.
The streets did not overflow, ” Yolanda Tabio, a 73-year-old retired who lives in Santiago, told the Associated Press.
“I think it can be worse.” Rafael Carmenate, a volunteer for the local Red Cross who lives facing the beach in Santa Cruz Del Sur, told the AP by telephone: `we have a little water _.
The sea has not been disturbed.
It’s cloudy and Gusty, ” Storm killed one person in St.
Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.
A 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died on Saturday in various events in the Dominican Republic after the wall collapsed on them, according to a Statement from the Emergency Operations Center.
Elsa is a Category 1 Storm of 1 to Saturday morning, causing widespread damage to several East Caribbean Islands Friday as the first storm of the Atlantic season.
Among the most devastated ones is Barbados, where more than 1,100 people report a damaged house, including 62 houses collapsed.
The government promises to find and fund temporary housing to avoid grouping People at the shelter in the middle of a pandemic.
The fallen trees were also reported in Haiti, which were very susceptible to floods and landslides due to widespread erosion and deforestation.
Haitian Civil Protection Agency said the week that three people had been injured by fallen trees.
Tropical storm warnings apply to West Cuba and for Florida keys from Craig Key to the west to dry tortugas.
Elsa is the earliest fifth storm named and also broke the record when the most rapid moving storm in Tropic, clocking at 31 mph Saturday morning, said Brian McNoldy, a storm researcher at the University of Miami.
Cuban parts are expected to get rainfall of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) until Monday, with a maximum amount of isolated 15 inches (20 centimeters).
Jamaica is expected to get 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters), with a total of 15 inches (38 centimeters).