After leaving nearly 200 dead or missing in Central America, tropical storm Eta hit Cuba on Sunday with strong winds and heavy rains, before reaching the Atlantic towards Florida where it should gain in intensity again.
• Read also: Storm Eta approaches Cuba after hitting Central America
No immediate casualties or damage were reported, but the island will still experience rains and swells.
At 9 am, the storm “left the land by the north coast near Chambas”, in the central province of Ciego de Avila, a territory that it crossed from south to north from 4.30 am, according to the Institute. Cuban Meteorology (Insmet).
The Institute reported winds of up to 95 km / h, with stronger gusts.
The storm, which is moving at a speed of 19 km / h towards the north / northeast, swept through tourist spots in the Jardines del Rey archipelago, but according to state television, the 600 foreign tourists who s ‘found there had been sheltered.
Heavy rains were reported in the eastern part of Cuba, where civil defense and local authorities had evacuated thousands of people to safe areas for fear of flooding as the soils were already waterlogged and the reservoirs full.
According to forecasters, Eta is on his way to the Keys and the Florida peninsula and is expected to “strengthen further after passing through the Atlantic Ocean.” “The intensity is expected to be close to that of a hurricane when it passes over the Florida Keys,” writes Insmet.
In its path, the storm is expected to cause heavy rains over the western half of Cuba, with the risk of marine submersion as well.
Florida Governor Ron de Santis declared a state of emergency in southern counties on Saturday. Schools will be closed in the Southern Keys on Monday, Covid-19 test sites have been temporarily closed and authorities have opened shelters and started distributing sandbags so people can protect their homes from flooding.
Eta, which made landfall on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua on Tuesday in a powerful category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 km / h, gradually weakened as it passed Nicaragua and Honduras.
Its torrential rains also affected Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, as well as Mexico, where the authorities of Chiapas, one of the poorest states in the country, announced the discovery of at least twenty dead, for most of them washed away by flooding streams.
The heaviest toll is in Guatemala, with at least 150 dead or missing, and on Saturday rescuers continued to search for survivors after the landslide caused by the hurricane in the indigenous village of Queja (north).
In Honduras, authorities on Saturday announced a death toll of at least 23 after heavy flooding.