oliverdst Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Huge tornado in Cuba kills 3 and injures 172 By Jack Guy, CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/28/americas/cuba-tornado-dead-scli-intl/index.html Updated 1254 GMT (2054 HKT) January 28, 2019 A car damaged by fallen debris after the tornado struck (CNN)A tornado that hit the Cuban capital, Havana, Sunday night has left three people dead and 172 injured. Dramatic photos show debris covering cars and flooding in coastal zones of the city. Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel visited emergency crews around the city overnight and wrote on Twitter that the damage was "severe." Police cordon off a street in Havana after the tornado. Strong winds damaged buildings and caused flooding in low-lying areas of Havana, according to a government statement, with the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Mayabeque also affected. The AFP news agency reported winds of up to 62 miles per hour. The Cuban Meteorological Institute will evaluate the extent of the damage and the intensity of the storm in the next few hours, the statement said. Cuban actor Luis Silva said he was driving with his wife and children when the tornado struck. "I had to avoid fallen trees, floods, strong winds. Until I was able to get home!" he wrote in an Instagram post. "We had a big scare." Strong winds knocked down utility poles. The tornado left much of the city in darkness. Staff at the Hijas de Galicia maternity hospital evacuated the building because of storm damage, AFP reported. Locals said the tornado had "the sound of a jet engine," and they felt changes in environmental pressure as it hit, Armando Caymares of Cuba's Institute of Meteorology told AFP. Damage to infrastructure left much of the city without electricity. The island nation regularly suffers extreme weather events such as hurricanes and Atlantic storms. It sits in the Caribbean Sea, which is vulnerable to hurricanes from June 1 to November 30. In September 2017, 10 people died in Cuba as a result of Hurricane Irma, with seven of these deaths in Havana, according to state television. Irma made landfall in Cuba as a Category 5 storm, blasting into seaside towns and causing flooding in low-lying areas of Havana. Winds of 125 mph whipped roofs off buildings, ripped trees from the ground and forced evacuations along the coast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRATJV07 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Are tornadoes common in Cuba? Or the entire Carribean for that matter? I was shocked to read this article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakeLA Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 My friend's sister is there now. Seems she's okay, but the pictures are terrifying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverdst Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 8 hours ago, blakeLA said: My friend's sister is there now. Seems she's okay, but the pictures are terrifying. Some pictures here even worse http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2019/01/28/el-tornado-paso-por-regla-como-una-bola-de-fuego-fotos/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakeLA Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 2 hours ago, oliverdst said: Some pictures here even worse http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2019/01/28/el-tornado-paso-por-regla-como-una-bola-de-fuego-fotos/ Yeah those pictures are nuts. Hard to tell the general infrastructure impact, but I imagine it really displaced a lot of people who already didn’t have a lot (not to mention the injured / killed). Very sad to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corylax18 Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Ugh, Terrible. I didn't even realize Cuba had Hurricanes, I almost didn't believe it at first. Reports from Friends on the island have been OK so far, but it seems the damage is as bad as the photos show. I'm hearing there was very little warning, so people didn't really have a chance to prepare/shelter in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fugu Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Corylax18 said: Ugh, Terrible. I didn't even realize Cuba had Hurricanes You sure meant to say tornados. Tornados can develop almost everywhere, mostly subtropical to temperate regions, but the size and occurrence can vary greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLC Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 Are tornadoes common in Cuba? Or the entire Carribean for that matter? I was shocked to read this article.Not common in Cuba. This is the worst one since 1940. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corylax18 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 6 hours ago, Fugu said: You sure meant to say tornados. Tornados can develop almost everywhere, mostly subtropical to temperate regions, but the size and occurrence can vary greatly. Yes! Of course. Hurricanes, obviously. But, I was not aware they had tornados. I've seen Water spouts and some pretty nasty thunderstorms in the Caribbean, but never a full blown tornado. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zedman05 Posted January 30, 2019 Share Posted January 30, 2019 The wife and Mother in Law are in Varadero. Good thing they didnt plan a trip to Havana for Sunday. It is not a likely occurance. They have had some real bad weather there over the last couple years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corylax18 Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Fascinating article below from the Havana Times about the Tornado. It has been graded an EF-4 (2nd strongest possible) with winds measured at 300 kph(186 mph)!!!!! The last time a Tornado of that strength hit Cuba was 1940. It turns out the polar vortex sitting over the Midwest right now is a related issue. The Jetstream dipped very low bringing colder than typical air to the gulf area, this cold air mixing with the warm air that was already in place caused the MASSIVE Tornado. I was living in Corwith, IA (Pop. 246) in 2012 when an EF-3 came through town. You could feel the Tornado shaking the ground when it was still over a mile away, winds "only" hit 146 mph. No loss of human life, but one Farmer lost all but one of his hog sheds, killing roughly 1200 pigs. It was a terrifying experience, there really is nothing you can do if its coming your way. https://havanatimes.org/?p=147876 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helix Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Worse yet is reports of the Government selling food aid to the victims . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derboesekoenig Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 1 hour ago, helix said: Worse yet is reports of the Government selling food aid to the victims . Somehow this does not surprise me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helix Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2019/01/30/report-cubas-communists-selling-humanitarian-aid-tornado-victims/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverdst Posted February 2, 2019 Author Share Posted February 2, 2019 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156869451969223&id=233995019222 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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