Hurricane Oscar made landfall on the north coast of eastern Cuba on Sunday night, according to the National Hurricane Center.
According to the Hurricane Center, the hurricane made landfall in Cuba’s Guantanamo province near the city of Baracoa at 5:50 p.m. ET.
At the time of landfall, Oscar had maximum sustained winds of nearly 80 mph.
Oscar, which the National Hurricane Center characterized as “compact but powerful,” formed off the coast of the Bahamas on Saturday, triggering hurricane warnings from the northern coast of Cuba’s Holguin and Guantanamo provinces to the easternmost tip of the island. , Punta de Maisi.
The Category 1 storm was moving west-southwest at 7 mph, according to the latest information from the Hurricane Center.
Oscar is expected to cross eastern Cuba from Sunday night into Monday and accelerate northeast over the central Bahamas on Tuesday.
“Although expected to weaken after landfall, Oscar still has the potential to become a tropical storm as it moves north of Cuba late Monday and crosses the central Bahamas on Tuesday,” the center said early Sunday. Announced.
Cuba’s power grid has collapsed twice in 24 hours, and the country is preparing for the impact with storm warnings and alerts. In addition to the hurricane warning, both a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning were in effect for the northern coast of Cuba’s Las Tunas province.
A tropical storm warning was issued for the southeastern Bahamas and the south coast of Guantanamo, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the north coast of Camagüey province.
Eastern Cuba is expected to experience hurricane conditions and heavy rain Sunday night, according to the hurricane center.
Rainfall in eastern Cuba is expected to reach 5 to 10 inches, with up to 15 inches in some places, the center said. Three to eight inches of rain is possible in the southeastern Bahamas, and two to four inches of rain is possible in the Turks and Caicos Islands through Wednesday morning.
Storm surge of about 1 to 3 feet is also expected along Cuba’s northern coast, with “large and destructive waves” near the coast.
