Ian, strengthened in the last few hours and turned into a category 3 hurricane, made landfall early Tuesday with strong winds in the coastal town of La Coloma in western Cuba, the Cuban Institute of Meteorology reported.
"Hurricane Ian is already over Cuban territory"said a meteorologist from the institute during the special broadcast maintained by state television, specifying that "the outer wall is on the coast of the province of Pinar del Río, in La Coloma"a fishing village of about 7,000 inhabitants.
Local authorities reported that "Due to the passage of Hurricane Ian through our territory, all circuits" from Pinar del Rio, "are without electricity"indicated Cubadebate, an official news portal.
Until dawn, some 38,000 people had been evacuated in Pinar del Río, where the authority plans to relocate some 50,000 to shelters or the houses of relatives or friends.
Shortly before Ian made landfall in Cuba, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded it to category 3, adding that the storm registers winds of 185 kilometers per hour, with maximums of up to 200 km / h.
Ian should then continue on to Florida, in the southern United States.
– "The sound is deafening" –
The winds knocked down branches of trees and other objects that have flown in the streets and in the patios of the houses, according to images broadcast on television.
"The sound is deafening by the passage of the winds"a journalist told state television’s uninterrupted broadcast to report on the cyclone.
In San Juan y Martínez, a neighboring municipality and an important producer of tobacco leaf for cigars, tobacco growers took extreme precautions to protect seedbeds and cover the stored leaves with plastic, preventing them from being damaged.
During the afternoon the Civil Defense declared the phase of "alarm" in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, in the west, where strong swells and floods were recorded, with waves between five and seven meters.
This authority also declared a cyclonic alert for the provinces of Havana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, in the west, and Cienfuegos, in the center of the country.
In the capital, of 2.1 million inhabitants, at night there were rains in almost the entire city.
During Monday, Havanans made long queues to get some food. Fishermen from the coast made their boats safe before taking refuge in their homes.
"The government is taking all precautions to start the evacuation due to the cyclone, it is removing all the vulnerable people stuck to the river"Doraima Vivas, a 42-year-old pensioner who lives in El Fanguito, a neighborhood embedded in the coastline of the Almendares River, which runs through the west of the capital, told AFP. Neighbors reinforced her makeshift wooden houses.
In front of the Malecón in Havana, a gang of workers protected the front windows of a central gas station, previously hit by these natural phenomena, with wooden panels.
"We review compliance with the measures to face #HurricaneIan (…) It is urgent to make the most of these hours before the situation becomes more complex. The protection of the population is essential"President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Twitter.
– Heavy rains and winds –
In the US state of Florida, the inhabitants are also preparing for the imminent arrival of Ian, after a hurricane warning from the NHC for their coasts.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 67 counties and authorities are preparing for the arrival of the storm, which they hope will also cause power outages.
Ian "will bring heavy rain, high winds, flash flooding, storm surge (…) along Florida’s Gulf Coast"DeSantis said Monday at a news conference in Tallahassee.
Some 5,000 members of the National Guard joined the 2,000 troops from Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina to help fight the cyclone, the governor said.
In cities like Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, authorities began distributing sandbags to residents to protect their homes from the risk of flooding.
The Tampa International Airport indicated that it will suspend its operations starting at 5:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT) on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden also ordered a state of emergency in Florida, which allows federal aid funds to be released.
"It’s never too early to prepare"Tampa Mayor Jane Castor tweeted.
The Caribbean and Canada are still counting damage from Fiona, a storm that claimed seven lives as it passed through the Caribbean last week and another two in Canada.
