The Electrical Union (UNE) announced that it will prioritize electricity in Eastern Cuba to “ensure better preparation of the population” before Melissa.
MIAMI, United States. – The Electrical Union (UNE) announced that it will prioritize the availability of energy in the eastern region of Cuba due to the proximity of Hurricane Melissa, which will imply greater electrical effects in the rest of the country.
“Due to the proximity of the powerful Hurricane Melissait was decided to prioritize the eastern region of Cuba with the existing energy availability in the country, [para] “to be able to ensure better preparation of the population to face the meteorological event, so the rest of the provinces will be more affected,” reported the UNE.
The National Civil Defense General Staff declared this Monday, starting at 9:00 am, the “cyclonic alarm phase” for Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Granma, Las Tunas and Camagüey, and placed Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus in the “alert phase”.
The entity directed “the population to stay informed about the development of this system, through the national media and official social media profiles and to comply disciplinedly with the instructions given by local authorities and the Civil Defense.”
At 11:00 am this Monday, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicated that Melissa was a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum winds of 270 km/h and minimum central pressure of 908 hectopascals. At that time it was located 530 km southwest of Guantánamo and was moving at 6 km/h.
“The core of Melissa is expected to move over Jamaica tonight and early Tuesday, across southeastern Cuba Tuesday night, and across the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday,” the NHC said. The agency also warned that “preparations to protect life and property must be complete in Jamaica and accelerated in Cuba.”
The NHC anticipated cumulative rainfall totals of 15 to 20 inches in eastern Cuba, with local values higher, capable of causing life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides, as well as “potential for significant storm surge along the southeastern coast of Cuba late Tuesday or Wednesday,” with maximum heights “of 7 to 11 feet above tide levels.” normal”, accompanied by “large and destructive waves”.
For its part, the Forecast Center of the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) predicts that, in the next 24 hours, Melissa will turn “to the north and northeast”, transit through “the seas south of Jamaica” and approach from Tuesday “through the seas south of the eastern region of Cuba”, where “the meteorological conditions will progressively deteriorate”.
According to INSMET, the outer bands will increase cloudiness and rainfall in the East, “which may become strong in some localities, mainly in mountainous areas,” and “strong swells will continue in the seas south of the provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba with light flooding in low areas of this coastline.”
On the operational front of the electrical system, the UNE detailed this Monday that the effects due to generation deficits will continue to be high. In a television report from the National Cargo Dispatch, the director of that entity, Félix Estrada Rodríguez, accurate that the impact could reach 1,775 megawatts (MW) on Monday night.
Estrada indicated that the UNE will proceed to voluntarily disconnect the electrical service when the wind gusts exceed 60 km/h.
As part of preventive measures, Cuban authorities have ordered the evacuation and protection of almost 650,000 people in the eastern provinces. The Ministry of Education suspended teaching activities and the Ministry of Transportation canceled bus trips, interprovincial trains and flights to and from Santiago de Cuba and Holguín.
