After killing at least 12 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Tropical Storm Laura reached Cuba overnight from Sunday to Monday. The latter is expected to become a hurricane on Tuesday, while another hurricane, Marco, is heading towards the southern United States.
According to several US media, it is extremely rare for two hurricanes, or nearby weather phenomena, to follow each other so closely in the Gulf of Mexico.
A hurricane expected Tuesday
Storm Marco turned into a hurricane on Sunday with winds of 120 km / h expected "along part of the US Gulf Coast" of Mexico, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) . The hurricane is expected to "approach the southeastern coast of Louisiana on Monday" and begin to weaken once it makes landfall.
Laura, which caused flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing twelve people, is also expected to become a hurricane on Tuesday and could strike that same American region. "Laura is expected to travel to the central and northwestern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday night and Wednesday," according to the NHC. Laura, who is moving fast at 33 km / h, reached Cuba overnight from Sunday to Monday. “It's a tropical storm that doesn't yet have the organization that a hurricane could have,” meteorologist José Rubierta told state television.
Nearly 120,000 people evacuated
Laura entered from eastern Cuba with gusts reaching 146 km / h and waves of more than 3 meters over the town of Maisi, at the eastern tip of the island, in the province of Guantanamo, where the electricity was cut as a precaution. The winds have caused material damage, such as zinc roofs and some houses, and falling trees, but without causing any casualties for the time being, according to the state press.
In Guatanamo and Santiago de Cuba, some 120,000 people were evacuated in a preventive manner to homes for relatives and shelters dedicated to this type of event. Laura is expected to pass near the capital, Havana, on Monday afternoon, then return to the sea at dawn on Tuesday, possibly via Pinar Rio (far west), heading north-west.
Considerable damage
In Haiti, nine people died during the passage of Laura and two are missing, according to the latest report released Sunday afternoon by the president. Four deaths have been recorded in the Sud-Est department, including that of a 10-year-old girl, killed by a fall from a tree on a house. Five people lost their lives in the capital Port-au-Prince, where a woman and her child are missing.
Several rivers in the country are in flood, causing significant flooding and preventing all traffic on some major roads in the country. The authorities are continuing to evacuate the inhabitants located on the banks of the Artibonite river, downstream from the Péligre dam lake, in flood due to torrential downpours. In the Dominican Republic, three people were killed during the passage of storm Laura which, there too, caused floods and deprived a million people of electricity, according to the authorities.
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