Cuba awaits the arrival of tropical storm Arlene with floods and evacuations in the east of the Island after the heavy rains registered in the last hours, the state press reported this Saturday.
Despite the weakening of Arlene during the early morning, authorities remain on alert as the storm approaches the country from the Gulf of Mexico.
According to a notice this Saturday from the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (Insmet), the storm has lost strength “but still maintains maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour.”
The institution assured that “in the next 12 to 24 hours, this system will continue its movement with a course close to the southwest, with little change in its translation speed, weakening more, to become a tropical depression.”
quoted by newspaper Granma -official organ of the Communist Party, the only legal one in the country- Armando Caymares Ortiz, main specialist of the Insmet Forecasting Center, said that “despite its highly probable dissipation, it is recommended to pay attention to the information that is issued about this organism tropical cyclonic, given its relative proximity to the territory”.
The institution assured that “in the next 12 to 24 hours, this system will continue its movement with a course close to the southwest, with little change in its translation speed.”
According to Caymares Ortiz, during Saturday “showers, rains and electrical storms will persist in a large part of the Cuban archipelago.”
In Holguín, 4,660 people were evacuated due to flooding after the overflow of the Sagua River, reported he Sagua de Tánamo Citizen Portal. The outlet noted that between Friday night and the early hours of Saturday, 100 millimeters (mm) of rain had fallen. The forces of the Moa Fire Department participated in the work, who rescued people who had been trapped.
In the same province, the radio station telecrystal reported that the Arroyo Seco bridge collapsed at dawn on Saturday due to a flood of the Mayarí river. The outlet lost direct links with six Mayarí communities and part of the territory of Segundo Frente, jurisdiction of Santiago de Cuba.
This viaduct was inaugurated in 2015, a work described by the official press as one of the “most important” of the Turquino Holguin Plan that would facilitate the transit of people and goods. It had an extension of 280 meters in length, which crossed the Mayarí dam.
Arlene is the first named storm in the current hurricane season.
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