Schools are closed and residents are evacuated to Cuba due to storm Ian, which is expected to hit Florida even harder on Wednesday.
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Hurricane Ian is expected to hit Cuba on Monday evening local time, NTB reports.
In some parts of the country, schools are closed. Cuban authorities evacuated 50,000 people in Pinar del Rio province, dispatched medical and emergency personnel, and took measures to protect food in warehouses, they write. AP.
On Monday afternoon, the hurricane moved at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, with a wind speed of up to 135 kilometers per hour.
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Expect a Category 4 hurricane
The cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg in the US state of Florida are expected to be hit by Ian as early as Wednesday.
It will be the two cities’ first direct hurricane hit by a major hurricane since 1921, AP writes.
The hurricane is expected to get bigger as it moves from the western tip of Cuba to the west coast of Florida, which is expected to hit as early as Wednesday this week.
Here, Ian would have to get stronger, to become a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of up to 225 kilometers per hour.
Category 4 is considered the second strongest level on the hurricane scale, where catastrophic damage will occur, with winds ranging from 209 to 251 kilometers per hour, according to the National Weather Service Meteo.gov.
– Please take this storm seriously. This is real. It’s not a drill, said Timothy Dudley, head of crisis management in Hillsborough County in Florida a press conference.
It can evacuate 300,000 people
Up to 300,000 people could be evacuated from low-lying Hillsborough, County Administrator Bonnie Wise said. according to AP.
Some of these evacuations were carried out on Monday afternoon in the most vulnerable areas, where, among other things, schools were opened as reception centers.
The NHL club Tampa Bay Lightning Reports on Monday that they postponed the team’s Wednesday and Thursday home games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators, respectively, due to the hurricane.
They also report that they will play the matches at a later date.
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