Cuban authorities checked preparations before hurricane Rafael hit the island

The deputy prime minister of Cuba, Ramiro Valdés, and the head of the Civil Defense Staff, Major General Ramón Pardo Guerra, checked preparations in the western province of Artemisa as hurricane Rafael nears.

The Civil Defense reported on X social media that Valdes and Pardo are assessing preparation in that territory, in the west of the island, where the hydrometeorological event is expected to enter this country.

According to the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (Insmet), it is expected that the meteor will move near or only to the east of the Isle of Youth (to the south) during the next hours, and touch land in the west of Cuba in the afternoon and then move to the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico at night.

The Insmet Forecast Center reports that between 15:00 and 16:00  local time, Rafael should be entering the Cuban archipelago, with a possible Category 3, at a point between Playa Cajío and Playa Dayaniguas, in Artemisa and Pinar del Río, respectively.

The Insmet Tropical Cyclone Warning No. 10 indicates that during the morning today Hurricane Rafael continued to rapidly gain in organization and intensity, its maximum sustained winds have increased to 165 kilometers per hour, making it a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Insmet points out that hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 kilometers (km) from the center and tropical storm force winds up to 185 km.

It adds that this system will continue with a similar course and speed of translation, passing through the seas near the Isle of Youth during the morning, and may gain even more intensity, before penetrating land in the vicinity of the southern coast of the provinces of Artemisa and Pinar del Río.

Given its proximity to the national territory and its trajectory, Insmet asks that the greatest attention be paid to the future evolution of Rafael and to the information issued by the forecasting center.