Hurricane Oscar made landfall on the north coast of eastern Cuba on Sunday night, according to the National Hurricane Center.
According to the Hurricane Center, the hurricane made landfall in Cuba’s Guantanamo province near the city of Baracoa at 5:50 p.m. ET.
The storm had weakened, with winds reaching 110 km/h and stronger gusts as of the center’s 8 p.m. update. At the time of landfall, Oscar had maximum wind speeds of nearly 80 miles per hour.
The center said the storm “brought hurricane conditions, heavy rains and storm surge to parts of eastern Cuba.”
Oscar, which the National Hurricane Center characterized as “compact but powerful,” formed off the coast of the Bahamas on Saturday, triggering hurricane warnings from the northern coast of Cuba’s Holguin and Guantanamo provinces to the easternmost tip of the island. , Punta de Maisi.
The Category 1 storm was moving west-southwest at 6 mph, according to the latest information from the Hurricane Center.
“Oscar is expected to weaken as it interacts with the mountainous terrain of eastern Cuba, but could still become a tropical storm if it moves north of Cuba late Monday and crosses the central Bahamas on Tuesday. ,” the NHC said at 8 p.m. ET. update.
Cuba has suffered four major power grid failures since Friday and was already dealing with multi-day power outages.
The country was preparing for the impact with storm warnings and alerts in place. In addition to the hurricane warning, Cuba’s northern coast of Las Tunas province was under both a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning.
A Tropical Storm Warning was issued for the southeastern Bahamas and the coast south of Guantanamo, and a Tropical Storm Warning was issued for the northern coast of Camaguey Province and the central Bahamas.
Rainfall in eastern Cuba is expected to reach 6 to 12 inches by Wednesday, with up to 18 inches expected in some places, the center said. Three to eight inches of rain is possible in the southeastern Bahamas, and two to four inches of rain is possible in the Turks and Caicos Islands through Wednesday morning.
Storm surge of about 1 to 3 feet is also expected along Cuba’s northern coast, with “large and destructive waves” near the coast.
