The entirety of the island of Cuba has been left without power after it was stuck by Hurricane Ian - wrecking its electricty grid.
Cuba’s Electric Union said in a statement that work was being done to gradually restore service to the country’s 11 million people between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, according to Reuters.
Power was initially knocked out in Cuba’s western provinces, but subsequently the entire grid collapsed, it was reported.
Already in Florida, next in line of the storm, more than 2.5 million people were under some kind of evacuation warning as the hurricane neared its west coast and its governor warned the time to heed officials’ warnings to leave was “rapidly running out”.
Southern Florida began feeling the storm’s first effects Tuesday evening, with rain and powerful winds whipping the region, and tornado threats which will last overnight.
In Cuba, tens of thousands of people were shifted and evacuated and others fled the area ahead of the arrival of the storm. which caused flooding, damaged houses and felled trees.
Florida man wakeboards down street in Hurricane Ian floodwaters
Authorities were still said to be assessing the damage, although no victims have been reported so far. Ian’s winds damaged one of Cuba’s most important tobacco farms in La Robaina.
“It was apocalyptic, a real disaster,” Hirochi Robaina, owner of the farm that bears his name and that his grandfather made known internationally, posted on social media, the Associated Press reported.
It showed farm buildings in rubble, overturned carts and wood scattered everywhere.State media reported that Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has visited the region hit hardest by the hurricane.
Additional reporting by agencies
