Hurricane Oscar makes landfall in Cuba as a Category 1
Hurricane Oscar made landfall Sunday evening on the northern coast of east Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane made landfall at 5:50 p.m. ET in the Cuban province of Guantanamo, near the city of Baracoa, the hurricane center said.
At the time of landfall, Oscar was packing maximum sustained winds near 80 mph.
Oscar, which the National Hurricane Center has characterized as “compact but powerful,” formed off the coast of the Bahamas Saturday, prompting a hurricane warning for the north coast of Cuba’s Holguin and Guantanamo provinces, all the way to the easternmost tip of the island, Punta de Maisi.
The Category 1 storm was moving west-southwest at 7 mph, according to the hurricane center update.
Oscar is expected to move across eastern Cuba on Sunday night into Monday, and accelerate northeastward across the central Bahamas Tuesday.
“Weakening is expected after landfall, but Oscar could still be a tropical storm when it moves north of Cuba late Monday and moves across the central Bahamas on Tuesday,” the center said earlier Sunday.
Cuba, where the electrical grid has collapsed twice in 24 hours, is bracing for impact with storm warnings and watches. In addition to the hurricane warnings, the north coast of the Cuban province of Las Tunas was under both a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for the southeastern Bahamas as well as the south coast of Guantanamo, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for the north coast of the province of Camaguey.
Eastern Cuba is expected to be hit with hurricane conditions and heavy rainfall Sunday night, the hurricane center said.
Rainfall in eastern Cuba is expected to reach 5 to 10 inches with up to 15 inches of rainfall in some places, the center said. The southeastern Bahamas can get anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of rain, and Turks and Caicos may get 2 to 4 inches of rain through Wednesday morning.
Around 1 to 3 feet of storm surge can also be expected along Cuba’s north shore, which will be accompanied by “large and destructive waves” near the coast.
