Hurricane Ian at Category 4, ‘Extremely Dangerous’ – Latin America

The US Weather Service has been expecting Hurricane Ian to hit Florida for a few hours and is expected this afternoon (morning in Italy). This is reported by the New York Times. Experts predict that the cyclone will bring winds of up to 209 kilometers per hour. In the American evening, the hurricane will pass west of the Keys and then make landfall on Florida’s west coast at Port Charlotte, south of Sarasota.

A view of Front Street and Duval Street in Key West, Florida

Meanwhile, the passage of the hurricane in Cuba has cut off electricity in most of the island’s provinces.

Hurricane Ian It strengthened to become one Category 4 storm “Extremely dangerous,” the National Hurricane Center said as it hit the west coast of the US state of Florida. “Church experts have determined that Ian has strengthened to become a Category 4 storm,” the NHC said in a warning issued at 5 a.m. (0900 GMT), adding that the storm is expected. and floods.”

The passage of Ian, a storm of Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, was extremely severe in the western regions of Cuba, still temporarily causing two deaths, completely paralyzing the power supply throughout the national territory, and serious damage. to infrastructure and tobacco crops for manufacturing and production. During the night, Cubans spent in the dark, the Cuban Ministry of Energy, news agency Prensa Latina writes, “Two thermoelectric plants have announced the resumption of operation, after the extraordinary situation of ‘0 generation electricity’. The complex weather situation caused by Hurricane Ian,” which is now moving towards Florida.

Several poles of the power grid were downed by the force of the 200km/h winds along with the heavy rain, so teams of technicians are working to restore normal service today and tomorrow. The President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canal, went to Pinar del Río, the island’s worst-hit province, to meet with local authorities and encourage the people who had to endure a “terrible experience”. At this point he learned that a man and a woman had fallen to their deaths in their homes.

Taking to Twitter, the head of state reiterated that “the damage caused by Ian is too great to be quantified yet. Help is already pouring in from different parts of the country.” Finally, Díaz-Canal confirmed that Pinar del Río province was “the most devastated area”, as well as “Havana, Artemisa, Mayabeque provinces and to a lesser extent the Isle of Youth”. Emergency situations.

Hurricane Ian will make landfall in Florida this afternoon