Hurricane Ian reached Cuba at 3:20 am, when it made landfall in La Coloma, south of Pinar del Río. At that time, the cyclone registered a speed of 124 kilometers per hour and it began to rain heavily in the province.
An hour earlier, Ian was upgraded to category 3, when its winds reached a force of 185 km/h.
According to the Forecast Center of the National Institute of Meteorology (Insmet), the phenomenon will pass through Cuba for about four hours before leaving along the north coast between Puerto Esperanza (Viñales) and Santa Lucía (Minas de Matahambre).
After midnight, the gusts of wind were already strong in the western part of the Island. The strongest gusts were detected in Isla de la Juventud, with 111 km/h, higher than 100 km/h in three stations in Pinar del Río. and 95 km/h in Bahía Honda, Artemisa.
Coastal flooding is strong in the south of Isla de la Juventud, Pinar del Río and Artemisa, but can extend to Mayabeque during the early hours. Meanwhile, in Havana the rains began to fall at midnight, but until now they are light.
In Artemisa, the municipalities of San Cristóbal and Guanajay were left without electricity and there are a total of 11 circuits without service in the province, according to the Electric company. In this province there are at least 12,000 people evacuated in specialized centers and family homes, the president of the Artemisa Defense Council, Gladys Martínez Verdecia, told the official press, and emergency telephone numbers have been set up.
The situation is more serious in Pinar del Río, where the evacuees exceed 38,000, the vast majority to the homes of relatives. Also in this province there are multiple locations without electricity. In San Juan, San Luis, Guane, Mantua and Sandino, in addition to several circuits in the capital, the service was cut to avoid problems due to the force of the winds, according to the territory’s electricity company.
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