HAVANA (AP) – Tropical storm Elsa made landfall in the south of the Matanzas province in Cuba in the early hours of the afternoon on Monday, putting Havana on alert heading northeast. It will cross the island in its central area and before heading to Florida.
–
The Florida Hurricane Center indicated the position of the meteor, which arrives with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour. It was located 140 kilometers southeast of Havana, the capital of the country and the most populated city. Its current movement was northwest.
–
The area through which he entered was located about 30 kilometers from Playa Larga, in the Ciénega de Zapata, a natural park with few inhabitants, according to information provided by the Casablanca Radar, which is at the headquarters of the Institute of Meteorology.
–
The meteorological phenomenon – which left three dead in the Caribbean before degrading from cyclone to storm – skirted the southern seas of Cuba since the weekend, leaving in its wake some damage, especially in crops, causing floods and floods of rivers, but without fatalities in the largest of the Antilles.
–
Although the expected trajectory places the meteor passing mainly through rural areas, in the capital, where slight sea penetrations are expected, the population of low-lying areas was sheltered.
–
“For now I’m staying at my house, we have to wait for the night and see exactly what happens. If something happens, our upstairs neighbor offered to meet us. I have faith in God, ”Aida Herrera, a 59-year-old resident of the Malecón, the artery that faces the sea, told The Associated Press.
–
In any case, to protect her belongings, she had already put up her appliances and some waxes after 40 years of living in the same house and with a long experience in matters of cyclones and tropical storms.
–
Experts said that once Elsa transits north it will bring downpours and storm surges causing flooding. Over the weekend some people from areas even lower than Herrera’s family had been evacuated.
–
Although initially there was a lot of concern about the arrival of the storm in eastern Cuba and the authorities came to evacuate more than 180,000 people preventively on Sunday in the east of the island, the phenomenon weakened and passed without touching land.
–
In the eastern province of Granma, it affected banana plantations that were withdrawn to be commercialized. In Sancti Spíritus, the rains made the Yayabo river grow and a meteorological station in that region reported an accumulated 152 millimeters of rain in the last 24 hours.
–
Meanwhile, he left the town of Jibacoa, in the mountainous area of Villa Clara, incommunicado due to the rising of another river.
–
Elsa arrives when Cuba is in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak, so the arrival of the meteor complicates the health situation. So far on the island there have been more than 207,300 cases and about 1,400 deaths, according to official data from the National Epidemiology Directorate.
–
According to experts from the Cuban Institute of Meteorology, Elsa will weaken upon landfall, but will continue its northeast course with extensive rainfall throughout the western region on Monday. Tuesday the storm will head to Florida and part of the Georgia coast.
–
A woman died on the weekend on the island of Santa Lucia and two people were crushed to death in the Dominican Republic, where heavy flooding was recorded.
–
Elsa was the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and the fifth named storm that started earlier – in early July – in recorded history.
–
–
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
– .
