Elsa Weakens a Little, Still Poses Threat for Cuba
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – When Cuba’s decades-long leading weatherman Jose Rubiera comes on the television virtually everyone on the island is watching. He is the one the government calls in to mix seriousness and calm to the concerned population.
Rubiera came on today’s 1 PM news and warned that Tropical Storm Else does pose a threat to Cuba. He called on people to take the precautions suggested by the Civil Defense authorities.
He reported: The satellite image shows that Elsa has weakened slightly. “The center is outside the cloud pack. Now it is a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, with a pressure of 999 millibars and it is moving very fast, although it has slowed down to 29 mph,” he highlighted.
Rubiera pointed out that he had never seen a tropical cyclone in the deep tropics, below 20 degrees north latitude that moved at such a high translational speed and developed. “This has [fortunately] worked against the development of this tropical cyclone,” he reported.
The different projection models coincide that the storm will begin affecting eastern Cuba on Sunday with rains, winds and storm surges. Then it is likely to pass through the central region of the country and possibly Matanzas in the west. When it leaves Cuba, it will be en route to Florida.
Weather.com meteorologists informed on early Saturday afternoon that outer rainbands are affecting parts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and tropical storm-force winds are affecting southern portions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, reported a wind gust of 51 mph.
For those readers that understand Spanish here is Jose Rubiera today.