MIAMI (AP) – Hurricane Oscar made landfall early Sunday in the southeastern Bahamas and was headed toward Cuba, an island that recently suffered a major power outage.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the center of the storm had reached the island of Great Inagua. It is expected to produce a dangerous storm surge that could turn into major coastal flooding there and elsewhere in the southeastern Bahamas. Two to four inches of rain is expected, with isolated areas seeing up to six inches.
Forecasters called for 5 to 10 inches of rain in eastern Cuba through Tuesday, with some isolated areas getting up to 15 inches.
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Oscar made Saturday off the coast of the Bahamas and passed the Turks and Caicos Islands to the south.
The National Hurricane Center previously described the storm as “minor,” but hurricane warnings were in place Sunday for the southeastern Bahamas and parts of Cuba.
Hurricane-force winds are capped at 80 mph (130 kph) with maximum gusts. Its center was located about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east-northeast of Guantanamo, Cuba. The storm was moving west at 12 mph (19 kph) and was expected to make landfall in Guantanamo or Holguin, Cuba, on Sunday afternoon as a result of the storm.
The storm’s path comes as Cuba struggles to recover from its worst blackout in at least two years, which left millions without power for two days last week. Some electrical service was restored on Saturday.
Philippe Papin of the National Hurricane Center said Oscar was not expected to become a hurricane on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, the program attacked us a little bit,” said Papin.
A few hours earlier Tropical Storm Nadine formed off Mexico’s southern Caribbean coast. It collapsed into depressions in the tropics as it moved over the earth.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
