Oba today vacated the homes of 70,000 people on the southern side of the country, fearing that Storm Elsa, which hit the region, could cause flooding, after it devastated several islands in the Caribbean and killed three people.
The Cuban government had already opened shelters and taken steps to protect sugarcane and cocoa plantations before the storm hit.
Most of the evacuees went to their relatives’ homes, while about 23,000 people were housed in government facilities.
About 400 residents of mountainous regions took refuge in natural emergency caves.
Storm Elsa is heading to Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including Miami.
According to the Miami National Storm Center, in a statement, the storm was located this morning about 80 kilometers north of Kingston, Jamaica, and was heading from west to northwest at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, recording maximum winds of 95 kilometers each hour.
According to this center, the storm is expected to gradually weaken as it crosses Cuba on Monday.
“When Storm Elsa appears over the Florida Strait and in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, it is expected to experience a slight increase,” the document added.
According to the Caribbean Emergency and Disasters Agency, this storm killed one person on the island of Saint Lucia. Today, a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died, in separate events, in the Dominican Republic after walls collapsed on them.
As of this morning, Elsa was considered a Category 1 hurricane, causing extensive damage to several islands in the eastern Caribbean, and this Friday was declared the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
Barbados was among the worst affected, with more than 1,100 people left with destroyed homes, of whom 62 completely collapsed. The local government promised to find and fund temporary housing to avoid crowding people into epidemic shelters.
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