2023-08-29 04:36:34
Tropical storm Idalia made landfall this Monday night at the western end of Cuba shortly before it began to be considered a hurricane, reported the Caribbean country’s Institute of Meteorology (INSMET).
Insmet experts explained on Cuban state television that the cyclone He crossed Cape San Antonio in a few minutesa narrow strip of land at the westernmost point of the island of Cuba, around 9:00 p.m. local time (01:00 GMT on Tuesday).
The expert José Rubiera predicted that in “a few hours tonight Idalia should become a hurricane” because the drop in atmospheric pressure is raising the wind speed and, consequently, intensifying the tropical cyclone.
Rubiera spoke of “very strong storms” in Pinar del Río, the westernmost province of Cuba, and a considerable increase in the force of the wind. That region and the neighboring Isla de la Juventud and Artemisa are in a state of Cyclone Alarmthe third of the four chronological phases according to the Cuban categorization.
Strong swells have also been recorded in the west and southwest of Cuba that have caused the entry of the sea in some low-lying areas. Several thousand people have been evacuated preventively.
Idalia, which is advancing north towards Florida (United States), has gained strength, configuration and speed in the last few hours. He Insmet has registered gusts of up to 118 kilometers per hour where they anticipate that the eye of the hurricane will soon settle.
This storm brings bitter memories to the island, a little less than a year after the scourge of Hurricane Ian, which with category three crossed the province of Pinar del Río from south to north at the end of September 2022.
Ian caused the death of at least five people and left considerable material damage to more than 100,000 homesmany of which have not yet been repaired, according to official figures.
It also damaged the supply of drinking water, seriously affected agriculture, especially in the cultivation of tobacco -the star agricultural product of Pinar del Río- and led to the total collapse of the National Electric System, causing a general blackout on the island from which it took days to come out.
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