Hurricane Helene has left flooding in streets and homes in the municipalities of Batabanó, Melena del Sur, and San Nicolás, in the province of Mayabeque, according to images shared on Facebook by Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in the area.
Prior to the hurricane, provincial authorities created a Temporary Work Group, based in Mayabeque, which was already aware of the need to "protect" the residents of those low-lying areas of the coastal province. However, their efforts did not prevent the usual images from recurring. Additionally, they ordered the fishing boats of the Surgidero de Batabanó Fishing Company to dock, as reported by the state-run Diario de Mayabeque.
Hurricane Helene reached category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale on the morning of this Thursday and began to approach the coasts of Florida as a cyclone. Its effects were strongly felt on Wednesday in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico) and in the western part of Cuba.
Southeast Cape Coral, Florida, was hit this Thursday by strong winds, potentially associated with a tornado, due to the outer bands of Hurricane Helene, which continues to batter the region.
It was right on the way to Florida, on the afternoon of this Thursday, that Helene became a category 3 hurricane. Flood alerts have been extended to Georgia.
The floods left in the wake of Hurricane Helene complicate the health situation in Mayabeque. The province, according to Francisco Durán, the national director of Hygiene and Epidemiology, is one of the most exposed to dengue and Oropuche, diseases that have been especially active in the last week in Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara.
This is the second hurricane named Helene. In 2018, another tropical cyclone, of category two, bore this name. The previous one was notable for being one of the few tropical systems to approach Europe, affecting Portugal, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.
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