Off the wire
• Over 1,000 killed in violence, armed conflicts in Iraq in September: UN  • Iran, Pakistan stage joint naval drill  • Technique developed at Stanford to make low-light microscopy clearer  • Feature: Chinese team participates in Spain's human towers contest  • Saudi-led coalition rescues civilians from Houthi attack  • Iran, Norway agree to cooperate in aquaculture  • Feature: Dragon Boat Festival opens new chapter of Egypt-China cultural exchange  • Interview: Mixed feelings over southern Africa's bid to stop up-lifting of elephant at CITES meet  • Roundup: Sanchez resigns after chaotic Spanish Socialist Party meeting  • Spanish Socialist Party meeting ends in chaos as divisions remain  
You are here: 　 Home

East Cuba braces for direct hit from Hurricane Matthew

Xinhua, October 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Eastern Cuba braced on Saturday for a possible direct hit from Matthew, a category 4 hurricane on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of up to 220 km per hour and heavy rains.

Cuba's national civil defense agency issued a hurricane watch for the island's eastern provinces, where Matthew was expected to make landfall late Monday, according to forecasts.

Over the previous 24 hours, the hurricane fluctuated between a category 4 and 5, reaching maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h, with stronger gusts, according to state daily Granma.

The numbers "convert (Matthew) into the strongest (storm) of the present hurricane season in the tropical Atlantic basin, and the first to reach this notable strength in the Caribbean Sea since October 2012's Sandy," the daily said.

Hurricane Sandy caused widespread damage to southeast Cuba, killing 11 people, and went on to cause catastrophic flooding in New York City, after making an unexpected left turn into the U.S. Eastern Seaboard as she traveled north.

Cuban authorities have started preparing for an imminent impact and evacuations of coastal areas.

"Numerous measures to protect state assets, as well as human lives, are being taken in ... six eastern provinces," the civil defense agency said in a statement on Saturday.

The Miami, Florida-based National Hurricane Center's (NHC) 2 p.m. bulletin described a "powerful Matthew meandering over the south-central Caribbean."

"Eastern Cuba should monitor the progress of Matthew," said the NHC, which also issued a hurricane watch for Jamaica and parts of Haiti, meaning they could begin to feel the effects of the storm in 48 hours.

In Cuba's second-largest city and the worst hit by Sandy in 2012, Santiago de Cuba, the civil defense agency opened shelters and organized volunteer teams to clean storm drains and gather food stocks.

"We have to work intensely and prepare really well for this dangerous hurricane," Granma cited the head of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, Lazaro Exposito, as saying. Enditem