
14ymedio, Holguín, 20 October 2024 – Hundreds of Holguín residents have been gathering en masse since this morning at retail outlets of liquid gas, in order to buy fuel that will allow them to cook food over the coming days before the arrival of hurricane Oscar. According to the island’s Meteorology Institute, Insmet, the hurricane will hit eastern Cuba this Sunday at category level 1 and with winds of up to 140 km/h.
“There are more than 300 people here, and there are even more of them stretching around the corner”, Mariana, a resident of Hilda Torres provincial district explains to 14ymedio; she has joined the queue for gas at sales point number 14. “There are 18 points in total and all are in the same situation”.
Because of the huge power cut that has affected the island since Friday morning, Mariana has lost a number of food items. “A lot of things have gone off because the fridge stopped working”. In that situation, she says, she doesn’t know how she’s going to cope with hurricane Oscar, which threatens to bring heavy rains to the western provinces.
To make things worse, she points out, the hurricane will arrive at a moment of maximum tension when official information is only circulating on social media but internet connections are sparse and unstable. “I have a radio connected to a rechargeable lamp, and taking this up to the third floor we can manage to hear some reports”, the woman explains, but adds that her situation is “privileged” because “although more than half of Holguín residents know that a hurricane is coming they don’t have any details about it”.
The General Staff of Cuban Civil Defence put out an alert on Saturday night, before Sunday’s impact of the hurricane on the east of the island. The hurricane, which, the day before had reached category 1, also threatens the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeast Bahamas, according to the U.S National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Sitting opposite Miguel Díaz-Canel at a nighttime meeting which produced more promises than solutions, the authorities issued advice to Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Camagüey.
At six in the morning the eye of the hurricane lay over the island of Gran Inagua in the eastern Bahamas, at 130 km to the northeast of Punta de Maisí, at the extreme eastern edge of Cuba, and at 240 km to the east of Punta Lucrecia, Holguín. When it arrives this afternoon on the north coast of the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín its speed and movement will gradually start to diminish.

Civil Defence directed an increase in vigilance, in risk reduction and an increased watch on areas which are most vulnerable. “People are advised to keep an eye on information from Insmet and the Civil Defence, and to comply with instructions”, he added.
Insmet specialists forecast for Sunday a gradual increase in the area of showers, “rain and electrical storms – which may be intense in some eastern and mountainous areas”. There are also warnings of increased wind speeds, which, in the afternoon and evening will reach between 85 and 100 km/h.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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