Hurricane Rafael, expected to intensify rapidly before making landfall in western Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday, is bringing another wave of bad news to the island nation already grappling with power outages and recovering from a previous hurricane, The Associated Press reports.
The storm, currently located 65 miles north-northeast of Grand Cayman, has maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and is moving northwest at 13 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.
Rafael’s arrival comes just two weeks after Hurricane Idalia, which killed at least six people in eastern Cuba and left many areas without power.
The NHC warns that Rafael will unleash heavy rains across the western Caribbean, potentially causing floods and mudslides in parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. The storm is expected to slam into Cuba on Wednesday after drenching Jamaica and the Cayman Islands with rain on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory for Cuba on Tuesday, advising non-essential staff and U.S. citizens to leave the country and urging others to reconsider travel due to the potential impact of the storm.
Cuban authorities are urging residents to prepare for the storm’s arrival. The Cuban Civil Defense has called on people to stay in place once the storm makes landfall, while 37,000 people in the eastern province of Guantanamo have been evacuated due to expected bad weather.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for the Cayman Islands and several Cuban provinces, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for other Cuban provinces, parts of the Florida Keys, and Dry Tortugas.
In the Cayman Islands, schools and government offices have been closed, and long lines have been reported at grocery stores as residents prepare for the storm’s arrival.
Rafael is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Florida and the southeastern U.S. during the middle to late part of the week, with storm surges predicted for parts of the Florida Keys. The NHC has also issued a tornado watch for parts of the Keys and southwestern Florida.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which NOAA predicted would be well above average with 17-25 named storms, including up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
