Hurricane Rafael arrived in Cuba on Wednesday afternoon, plunging the island into a power failure just before making landfall as a powerful Category 3 storm in the western Cuban province of Artemisa on Wednesday. The storm moved across the island with excessive rains, sustained winds near 115 m.p.h. and higher gusts as well as the threat of storm surge and flash flooding.
The storm could not have come at a worse time for Cuba, which has been struggling to keep the lights on for months and has suffered several nationwide blackouts recently. It suffered another, just before Rafael’s arrival, when the government announced strong winds had knocked out power islandwide.
Hurricane Oscar killed at least eight people late last month in a country known for excellent disaster preparedness but where a power outage before the storm made it almost impossible for people to follow hurricane-related warnings by radio or TV.
Before Rafael’s arrival, Cuba declared a hurricane warning in the provinces of Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Mayabeque, Havana, Artemisa and the island of Isla de la Juventud. The government also hurried to position supplies already slammed by severe food and gas shortages. In Pinar del Río, in western Cuba, 200 tons of rice were to be distributed, but officials warned that weather conditions might thwart deliveries. With more than two dozen pumping stations out of commission or evacuated, officials said they were most worried about the water supply.
Operations at several airports in Cuba were suspended until midday Thursday, the Cuban Aviation Corporation said. The State Department has also warned travelers to defer trips to Cuba. “Be prepared to shelter in place until the storm passes and services re-open,” it said.
In Jamaica on Wednesday, two days after the storm first lashed the island, residents woke up to more flooding, which left some roads impassable. The rain, more than four inches of it in some areas, had already caused landslides and blocked residents in the parish of St. Catherine from traveling, the National Works Agency said on social media. Videos shared by a local broadcaster, Television Jamaica, showed muddy waters submerging streets in Negril, a popular tourist spot in western Jamaica.
Heavy rains and strong winds had hampered efforts to restore power in Jamaica, where 10,000 customers remained without power, according to the country’s main utility, Jamaica Public Service. The Jamaica Red Cross said that the storm had caused “significant infrastructural damage,” but that there had been no widespread reports of “direct damage to personal households.”
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