Satellite picture exhibiting Hurricane Rafael within the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. eighth, 2024.
Source: NOAA
Rafael was transferring west throughout the Gulf of Mexico Friday morning as the primary main hurricane within the Gulf of Mexico in November for nearly 40 years, bringing the specter of life-threatening circumstances to the southern United States shoreline.
Forecasters mentioned the storm might trigger harmful surf and rip-tides throughout the entire Gulf area within the coming days, after inflicting havoc in Cuba the place thousands and thousands are nonetheless with out energy.
As of 4 a.m. ET Rafael was 585 miles east of the mouth of the Rio Grande with sustained wind speeds of 120 mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane, transferring west at a price of 9 mph, the National Hurricane Center mentioned.
A person walks in a flooded avenue a day after Hurricane Rafael made landfall in Batabano, Cuba, November 7, 2024.
Norlys Perez | Reuters
Rafael is now tied with Hurricane Kate in 1985 because the strongest storms recorded within the Gulf.
The storm is anticipated to weaken all through the weekend, however it might nonetheless produce tropical storm-force winds — which is between 39 and 73 mph — as much as 115 miles from its heart.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Cane, on Thursday visited areas hit by the storm and spoke to a group working to repair six electrical energy towers that have been knocked down by winds of 115 mph earlier this week.
The nation’s whole energy community collapsed, the state-run operator UNE mentioned, plunging the nation’s 10 million folks into darkness — the second full blackout on the island within the final month — with many areas nonetheless unconnected. More than 283,000 folks have been evacuated, 98,300 from the capital, authorities mentioned.
Firefighters verify particles from a home throughout a blackout after Hurricane Rafael knocked out the nation’s electrical grid, in Havana, Cuba November 7, 2024.
Norlys Perez | Reuters
The capital Havana, with 2 million folks residing in densely packed and largely previous buildings, is especially susceptible to pure disasters. Desperate locals made their method to inns with their very own turbines seeking scarce energy.
“It is the second time that we have to live through all that has happened: the weather and the problems with the energy grid of the country,” native resident Mario de la Rosa Negrin informed the Associated Press. “The hotel offered, in solidarity, the power from their power plants to the neighbors so that people could charge their mobile phones and their lamps.”
Rafael is the seventeenth named storm of the hurricane season. It is simply the sixth hurricane to be recorded within the Gulf of Mexico in November and the third to be rated Category 2 or increased. The others have been Ida in 2009, a Cate
Workers take away fallen bushes over electrical cables a day after Hurricane Rafael knocked out the nation’s electrical grid, leaving 10 million folks with out electrical service, in Havana, Cuba November 7, 2024.
Norlys Perez | Reuters
