Pinar del Río begins to feel the effects of Hurricane Ian

Pinewood of the river You are already beginning to feel the effects of hurricane Ian in its territory with the presence of the first gusts of wind and overcast skies that threaten rain.

Meanwhile, low areas of the southern coast of the province begin to receive the first blows of the sea, agitated by gusts of hurricane-force wind.

“The weather is deteriorating in Cortés, Sandino... The effects of Hurricane Ian are already being felt in this popular council... To take all measures, preserving human lives is the first thing,” indicated the municipal director of Culture in the Sandino municipality, Ramon Ramos.

In a post of Facebook, the official shared videos and photographs of the southern coast of Pinar del Río in which the effects of the wind in the town can be seen, when the center of the hurricane was still located about 200 kilometers south of Carapachibey, Isla de la Juventud, and about 300 kilometers southeast of Cape San Antonio, in Pinar del Río.

“In this Popular Council, residents continue to evacuate to safe places. The main thing is to avoid loss of human life,” the Pinar del Río station indicated through its social networks. Radio Guama.

Ian has category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 130 km/h and higher gusts and maintains a course close to the northwest at a rate of about 20km/h, a speed slightly lower than the 22 km/h at which it started at the beginning of this Monday.

In the next 12 hours, it is estimated that Ian will tilt its course even more towards the north-northwest, with a similar translational speed.

The national Forecast Center warns that since the morning cloudiness has gradually increased in the west and center of the country, with showers and rain at intervals.

Tropical Storm Ian It became a hurricane in the early hours of this Monday and is expected to strengthen further as it moves through the Caribbean towards the Cayman Islands, Cuba and Florida.

The Forecast Center of the Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) of Cuba warned in its Tropical Cyclone Warning No. 14 that the storm surges will progressively increase in coastal areas of the western and central provinces, including the south of the Isle of Youth. .

This condition is favorable to moderate and strong coastal flooding in the south of the Isla de la Juventud, extending at night on the southern coast of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Mayabeque.

For its part, the National General Staff of the Civil Defense of Cuba decreed as of 8 in the morning this Monday the Cyclonic Alert phase for the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, Cienfuegos and the Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality in the face of the imminent advance of Hurricane Ian towards national territory.

According to the trajectory forecast released by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ian - which has become the fourth hurricane of the current hurricane season - should impact some area of western Cuba between Monday night and early Tuesday morning.