Tropical Storm Elsa to make landfall on Cuba’s central coast

Tropical storm Elsa swept through Cuba’s southern coast early Monday and forecasters said it could make landfall on the island’s central coast by mid-afternoon.

On Sunday, Cuban authorities had evacuated 180,000 people as a precaution against the possibility of heavy flooding by a storm that has already hit several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. Most of the evacuees stayed with relatives, others went to government shelters and hundreds of people living in mountainous areas took refuge in caves prepared for emergencies.

On Monday, the Civil Defense (DC) of Cuba exited the phase of “”alert“AT”alarm“The situation in the western provinces of Havana and Mayabeque, given the proximity of the tropical storm.

It was predicted that Elsa would cross Cuba on Monday night then head to Florida, where the governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including Miami-Dade, where a condominium collapsed on June 24.

The center of Elsa was located today at 9:00 a.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT) about 80 kilometers in the seas south of Girón beach, in the western province of Matanzas, according to the latest bulletin from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet).

The cyclone is advancing at a speed of 22 kilometers per hour and according to forecasts it is possible that its intensity will increase slightly before touching Cuban land., afternoon today, through the Ciénaga de Zapata, on the south coast of Matanzas, a province about 100 kilometers from the capital.

The center said the storm is expected to gradually weaken as it passes over central Cuba. “After the emergence of Elsa over the Straits of Florida and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, a slight strengthening is possible”, He said.

Rain fell intermittently in the eastern provinces of Cuba throughout Sunday as the storm passed south.

“So far it has been a gentle and serene rain. There is no downpour. The streets do not overflow“, said to The Associated Press Yolanda Tabío, a 73-year-old retiree who lives in Santiago. “I thought it could be worse.”

Rafael Carmenate, a local Red Cross volunteer who lives across from Santa Cruz del Sur beach, said PA by telephone : “We have water – showers. The sea has not entered. It’s cloudy and there are gusts. “

Storm killed one person in Saint Lucia, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency says. A 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died on Saturday in separate events in the Dominican Republic after the walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center.

Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday morning, causing widespread damage to several eastern Caribbean islands on Friday as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Barbados is one of the hardest hit, where more than 1,100 people have reported damaged houses, 62 of which have collapsed.

It was also reported fallen trees in Haiti, which is particularly vulnerable to floods and landslides due to widespread erosion and deforestation. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said Sunday that three people were injured by fallen trees.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for western Cuba and for the Florida Keys from Craig Key west to the Dry Tortugas. The Cuban government has issued a hurricane warning for the provinces of Cienfuegos and Matanzas.

(With AP information)

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