Hurricane Ian in category 4, ‘extremely dangerous’ – Latin America

The hurricane Ian it strengthened to become one category 4 storm “extremely dangerous,” said the National Hurricane Center as it struck the west coast of the US state of Florida. “Hurricane experts found that Ian has strengthened to become an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,” the NHC said in a warning issued at 5am (0900 GMT), adding that the storm is expected. ” it will cause a wave of storms, catastrophic winds and floods. “

The transit of Ian, a hurricane of category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, on the western regions of Cuba was extremely hard, with a still provisional toll of two deaths, the complete paralysis of the electricity supply throughout the national territory and serious damage to construction and production infrastructures, and to tobacco crops. During the night, spent in the dark by the Cubans, the Cuban Ministry of Energy, writes the news agency Prensa Latina, announced that “two thermoelectric plants have resumed operation, after the exceptional condition of ‘0 generation of electricity’ , associated with the complex weather situation caused by Hurricane Ian, “which is now heading for Florida.

Various pylons of the electricity grid were knocked down by the force of the wind which, together with heavy rains, had gusts of almost 200 km / h, so teams of technicians are working to restore normal service between today and tomorrow. The president of the republic Miguel Díaz-Canel went to the province of Pinar del Rio, the most affected on the island, to meet the local authorities and encourage the population who had to face “a terrible experience”. On this occasion, he learned that a woman and a man died from collapses in their homes.

Via Twitter, the head of state reiterated that “the damage caused by Ian is enormous, and it has not yet been possible to quantify it. Aid is already arriving from all over the country”. Finally, Díaz-Canel confirmed that the province of Pinar del Río is the “territory that has been most devastated”, adding that, equally, the provinces of “Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque, and to a lesser extent the Isle of Youth “present emergency situations.

HURRICANE IAN WILL HIT FLORIDA EARTH IN THE FIRST AFTERNOON
The US meteorological service has anticipated by a few hours the arrival in Florida of Hurricane Ian, now expected in the early afternoon of today (the morning in Italy). The New York Times reports it. Experts predict that the hurricane will bring winds of up to 209 kilometers per hour. On the American evening the hurricane will pass west of the Keys and then touch down in Port Charlotte, south of Sarasota, on the west coast of Florida. Meanwhile, the passage of the hurricane in Cuba has left most of the island’s provinces without electricity.