Hurricane Oscar is expected to reach Guantánamo or Holguin in Cuba later on Sunday as the country struggles to restore power after its worst blackout in years, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Oscar is currently located about 185 kilometers east-northeast of Guantánamo, Cuba, with maximum sustained winds of 130 kph, the Miami-based center said.
Cuba’s government restored power to nearly a fifth of the island’s 10 million residents on Saturday after the national power grid collapsed twice in 24 hours.
Hurricane Oscar made landfall on Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas earlier in the day.
The hurricane center expects Oscar to weaken after making landfall off the northeast coast of Cuba, but it could still be a tropical storm when it moves north of Cuba on Monday and through the central Bahamas on Tuesday.
According to the National Hurricane Center, rainfall amounts of 13 to 25 centimeters are expected in eastern Cuba through Tuesday.
The Bahamian government has discontinued its tropical storm warning for the Turks and Caicos Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane warnings for the southeastern Bahamas, the northern coast of the Cuban provinces of Holguin, Guantánamo and Las Tunas are still in effect, he added.
* Reporting from in Bengaluru
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