Cuba's strongest tornado in nearly 80 years kills at least four (UPDATE)

Jon Lockett
The Sun (UK)
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 18:42 UTC

© AFP

The tornado struck on Sunday evening devastating homes in Havana

A killer tornado has ripped through the heart of Havana devastating homes, crushing cars and cutting off power supplies to thousands of locals.

The Cuban capital - which is a mecca for tourists - was hit late last night with petrified residents saying the monster storm sounded like a "jet engine" taking off.

The horror twister has left at least three people dead and dozens more injured, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez revealed this morning.

"The damage is severe, so far we regret the loss of three human lives and are treating 172 injured," he said on Twitter. The injury figure later hit 174.

The president also posted photos of himself with survivors next to piles of debris and the wreckage of cars.

He later added: "We are travelling through places affected by the storm. The damage is severe."

According to reports from the scene, the affected neighbourhoods include Santo Suárez, Luyanó, Vía Blanca, Regla and Chibás.

The shocking storm hit on Sunday evening bringing gusts of more than 60mph, heavy rain and hail.

Images posted online show dozens of crushed cars and roads blocked by fallen buildings, trees and lamp posts.

© AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa

A truck is toppled against a home after a tornado in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019

He told El Nuevo Herald: "The ambulance and police sirens have not stopped. We are in the dark. Everything looks desolate, like in a science fiction movie."

The Daughters of Galicia Mother and Child Hospital was quickly evacuated after being battered by winds and there is reports of serious flooding in coastal areas.

At around 1am local time, Canal Habana journalists reported many parts of Havana - home to two million people - were still without electricity.

Tornadoes are pretty rare in Cuba, which is well used to being lashed by hurricanes and fierce Atlantic storms.

After hitting the island, the twister moved north to Florida, where the National Weather Service has already issued warnings.

Cuba tornado: Three dead and 172 injured as Havana struck by devastating storm

Comment:

Update: Reuters on 28th of January reported:

A rare tornado ripped through Havana late on Sunday, leaving at least four dead and nearly two hundred injured as it tore off roofs, flipped vehicles and reduced some of the buildings in its path to rubble.

The twister was the strongest to hit Cuba in nearly 80 years, according to Jose Rubiera, a meteorologist with the Cuban weather service. It pummeled its way 7.15 miles (11.5 km) through Havana over 16 minutes, at times reaching 0.62 miles (1 km) in diameter.

The streets of the worse-hit neighborhoods, mainly in eastern and central Havana, were strewn on Monday with shards of glass and debris as well as downed trees and power lines. Some areas lacked electricity and running water.

The devastation wrought suggested it was an "EF4" tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the second most powerful category with winds up to 200 miles per hour (322 km per hour), Rubiera told state-run news agency Prensa Latina.

"When I rushed up to the first floor to look for my mother, I found this disaster - the roof and front wall had gone, and she'd fallen into the street," said Victor Leiva Ramos, 41.

© Reuters

A woman looks out of her house after a tornado ripped through a neighbourhood in Havana.

Leiva Ramos, who was injured while trying to find her in the rubble, including a severed tendon, had his arm bandaged. His 73-year-old mother survived with a few fractures.

Cuba prides itself on suffering relatively few deaths in hurricane season due in part to a rigorous evacuation scheme.

Yet the tornado took Havana by surprise, although state-run media had warned residents that an approaching cold front from the north and winds from the south would create high winds, thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in the area.

Rubiera was later cited as saying that such phenomena were virtually impossible to predict when they affected such concentrated areas.

Diaz-Canel said the council of ministers had held an emergency meeting early on Monday to assess the damage and take the necessary steps to speed up the recovery work.

Meanwhile the huge clean-up effort in Havana continues:

Rare footage of the devastating tornado was shared on Instagram by Cesyl Pérez Valdez: