Cuba hit with deadly rains after Hurricane Agatha

Nearly 2,000 people evacuated their homes in western Cuba after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides that left three people dead and thousands without electricity.

Tropical storm warnings were issued on Friday for much of the Florida peninsula, Cuba and the Bahamas as a system that battered Mexico moves through the Gulf of Mexico.
AFP

Tropical storm warnings were issued on Friday for much of the Florida peninsula, Cuba and the Bahamas as a system that battered Mexico moves through the Gulf of Mexico.

At least three people in Havana have been killed after heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Agatha flooded much of western Cuba.

Thousands of residents in the region lost power, Cuban officials said on Friday.

"Strong, heavy rain and electrical storms have been affecting the western and central regions of Cuba with accumulations greater than 200 millimetres, which will continue for the rest of today and tomorrow, Saturday," the Cuban Weather Office (INSMET) said.

A 44-year-old man, initially thought missing, was found dead on Friday evening in the western province of Pinar del Rio after falling into a stream, according to local news site CubaDebate.

They also reported the disappearance of another person in the region.

With parts of the capital flooding, state media images showed rescuers in areas of central Havana evacuating people in canoes.

Nearly 2,000 people have decided to evacuate their homes, authorities say, while about 50,000 customers in the province of Havana are without electricity.

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AFP

The country’s civil defence organisation said the main damages so far were to homes and the electricity system.

Hurricane season

Agatha had crashed into southern Mexico with the potential to redevelop as a tropical storm in the Atlantic, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre had said.

So far, heavy rains "have produced floods in localities from Pinar del Rio (western extreme) to Sancti Spiritus (Center) and in the Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality (south of Havana)," INSMET said.

"People are almost waist-deep in water," said Luis Antonio Torres, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PPC) in the capital.

He had visited the municipality of Cerro, one of the most damaged areas, where at least one bridge fell and floodwaters seeped into some homes.

The Atlantic hurricane season begins each year on June 1 and ends on November 30, for the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

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AP

Volunteers pushed a boat through a street flooded by heavy rains to rescue a neighbour unable to leave his home on his own.

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