At least three dead, one missing and thousands of evacuees have left the heavy rains that have hit western and central Cuba since Friday, according to preliminary data offered this Saturday by the authorities.
The storm also reached the peninsula of Florida (USA) on Saturday, causing significant flooding in the south of the state, especially in the center of the city of Miami.
This dangerous storm is the product of the remnants of Hurricane Agatha, which left at least nine dead in Mexico a few days ago.
In Pinar del Río, the westernmost province of Cuba, one person died after falling into a swollen river and another is missing, while 4,480 have been evacuated and 11 areas remain incommunicado, the Presidency reported on Twitter.
"The accumulated average is 57.5 millimeters of water and the largest (rains) were in Isla de la Juventud (203), Pinar del Río (174), and Matanzas (125)," added the source.
The heavy rains also affect Havana where 61 landslides have been reported so far, 60 of them partial and one total, which affected nine families (20 people), detailed the official Cubadebate website.
"Two people also died in the Cuban capital due to a landslide and an accident, 445 people have taken refuge in around 80 evacuation centers and another 1,914 have evacuated themselves in the houses of relatives or friends," according to the publication that cites the coordinator of the Government of Havana, Orestes Llanes.
The current season of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic (officially from June 1 to November 30) will be "very active", according to the Cuban Institute of Meteorology.
The specialized center foresees the formation of up to 17 tropical cyclones, of which nine could reach the category of hurricane. Of them, they estimate, there is an 85% chance that one will affect Cuba.
The last time a large hurricane affected the country was in 2017, when Irma crossed the north coast of the island from east to west, leaving 10 dead and material losses officially valued at 13,185 million dollars.
The heavy rains left by the potential tropical storm that made landfall this Saturday on the Florida peninsula (USA) have caused significant flooding in the south of the state, especially in the center of the city of Miami, where the images show cars floating through its streets.
Located in the "dirty" part of the system, where there is more rain and wind, the southeastern area of Florida has registered strong and persistent rainfall in recent hours due to this storm that will cross the peninsula this Saturday.
In its bulletin at 8:00 a.m. local time (12:00 GMT), the US National Hurricane Center, based precisely in Miami, warned that the storm could leave up to 38 centimeters of water accumulation in some points in the south of Florida. This will cause, they warned, "considerable flooding" in urban areas.
And so it is being. Local media images show a good number of cars in the middle of completely flooded streets of Downtown and Brickell, the financial center, of Miami.
A similar situation is experienced on the streets of Miami Beach, where several vehicles were abandoned by their owners during the night when they were unable to continue their journey in the middle of the water.
Bad weather has affected air traffic and there is already a
9% of cancellations in departures at the Fort Lauderdale airport and 3% in Miami, where they also suffer delays, according to the specialized website FlightAware.
The system, which is not expected to be confirmed as a tropical storm until it organizes itself in the warm waters of the Atlantic in the coming days, is already generating winds of 65 kilometers per hour (40 m/h), the minimum to be officially considered a storm. tropical storm.
