TS Rafael On Track for Cuba as a Hurricane by Wednesday
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – Tropical Storm Rafael is expected to gain intensity today as it heads for the Cayman Island and then Cuba. The center is moving northwest at a speed of 14 mph (23 kph). Western Cuba, including the capital Havana, are on a hurricane warning.
At 1:00 P.M. Tuesday ET (also Cuba time), Rafael has 60 mph (95 kph) maximum sustained winds. The center was located at 70 miles (115 kms.) southwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica and 150 miles (240 kms) east-southeast of Grand Cayman.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reports that hurricane conditions are expected in the Cayman Islands by this evening and are also expected in western Cuba and the Isle of Youth on Wednesday.
Tropical storm conditions are expected in Jamaica for several more hours and are expected in parts of west-central Cuba and the lower and middle Florida Keys on Wednesday and Wednesday night.
The NHC further notes that Tropical Storm conditions are possible farther east in central Cuba on Wednesday.
Cuba as a whole, and especially Havana, suffer from severely deteriorated infrastructure after decades of little maintenance. Many condemned buildings are the homes of people with nowhere else to go.
As usual when hurricanes or tropical storms arrive, the Civil Defense System will be evacuating persons from unsafe structures and others subject to coastal flooding.