Cuba suffers a widespread blackout after the passage of Hurricane Ian, which is headed for Florida

• Ian Makes landfall in Cuba with category 3 and with winds of 185 kilometers per hour

• Fiona The hurricane strengthens and moves towards Bermuda

• Earl Hurricane upgraded to Category 2

• Danielle The remains of the hurricane leave strong storms in a dozen autonomies in Spain

The powerful hurricane Ian crossed western Cuba since early Tuesday morning and left the country in the dark with a

addition to destroying trees and causing other damage, before continuing towards Florida.

"There is no electricity service in any area of ​​the country at the moment," Lázaro Guerra, technical director of the state-owned Electric Union, said Tuesday night in statements to Cuban television's primetime news program.

When the winds of the cyclone and the swells were still being felt hitting the coast, people on the street were walking

, while in some homes they were lighting themselves with candles or rechargeable battery lamps.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines indicated on its side that it is an "exceptional condition", whose solution "requires great precision", and that the electrical service

during the early hours of Wednesday in this Caribbean country of

Only the few people who have gasoline-powered generators in their homes or offices have electricity.

The category 3 hurricane, which made landfall at dawn in the province of Pinar del Río, western Cuba, on Tuesday afternoon was 375 kilometers from Sarasota, Florida, and was advancing with

at a speed of 17 kilometers per hour.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States forecast that

as an extremely dangerous intense hurricane."

After leaving the island, in several western provinces, including Havana, the wind and rain continued, with a peripheral band of 600 kilometers.

On the way to San Juan y Martínez, 190 km from Havana, one of the hardest hit places and an area of ​​tobacco plantations in Pinar del Río,

everywhere were seen, Afp journalists confirmed. .

In the town of Consolación del Sur, Caridad Fernández, a 65-year-old housewife, contemplated the disaster on the threshold of her flooded home, with wet mattresses.

The French roof tiles went with the hurricane.

"We have everything damaged, but what we have is faith in maintaining life, and we have that. Everything comes out, except death," said the woman with bags under her eyes after a long night.

"Apocalyptic"

Cigar maker Yuslán Rodríguez, 37, toured nine nearly destroyed tobacco houses, including his own.

"I don't know what we are going to do this year with the (seed) campaign," he said disconsolately.

"It's not this tobacco house, it's

.

In San Juan y Martínez, the area that produces the best tobacco leaf for Cuban cigars, "it was apocalyptic, a real disaster," Hirochi Robaina, of Finca Robaina, a prestigious tobacco plantation founded in 1845, said on Facebook. about 30 kilometers from the town.

Roofs and windows were blown out, buildings collapsed and rubble scattered on the ground.

The photos published by Robaina show the violence of the hurricane.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel toured the most affected area in Pinar del Río on Tuesday.

"The damage is great," he said on his Twitter, assuring that help is being sent.

"We trust in the people of Pinar del Río, a noble, hard-working people with a lot of experience in these situations. Rest assured that we are going to recover," he said.

Some 40,000 people were evacuated in Pinar del Río

until dawn, reported the first secretary of the ruling Communist Party in the province, Yamilé Ramos.

In the capital it was reported that 4,000 people would be evacuated.

Tree branches blocked streets, while winds blew away tin roofs and road signs.

Etecsa, the state telephone company, reported serious damage to towers and poles and that cell phone and internet service was affected in the capital, as well as in Pinar del Río and Artemisa.

Heavy rain and wind

Residents in the US state of Florida are also bracing for Ian's imminent arrival, after Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 67 counties on Monday.

"During the night and this morning, some models that have been made

," the governor said at a press conference on Tuesday, specifying that it could make landfall in Sarasota.

"You have to understand that the impacts will be much broader" with "catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surges," he said.

In Tampa, employees handed out free sandbags to protect property from the water.

Amanda Harrison waited hours to get the sandbags.

"My hope is that I can get the maximum number of bags. And my fear is that they won't do any good," she said in Tampa, the 66-year-old woman.

The US president, Joe Biden, also ordered a

, which allows the release of federal aid funds.

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