Tropical Storm Fay, which killed at least 57 people in Caribbean countries over the weekend, moved slowly on Monday along Cuba’s south-western coast, where it was expected to make landfall before heading to Florida as a possible hurricane.
Cuba’s Meteorological Institute said the storm’s north-westerly movement had slowed to 16km/h and it was passing about 72km to the south-southeast of Playa Giron, also known as the Bay of Pigs, site of the failed 1961 United States-backed invasion to topple then Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The institute said landfall was expected around dawn.
Cuban officials ordered evacuations ahead of Fay, including low-lying parts of Havana, fearing that heavy rains and a storm surge could flood the Cuban capital and cause dilapidated buildings to collapse.
In the Florida Keys, tourists fleeing Fay, the sixth storm of the Atlantic cyclone season, created bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway out of the islands at the state’s tip.
Cuba had earlier evacuated people along its south-eastern and central coasts as Fay slid along, brushing the area with the winds and rain it now carries inland.
In Haiti, officials said about 50 people died when a bus tried to cross a river swollen by rain from Fay. Five others were known dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic from flood-related accidents.
Jamaica said a middle-aged couple died in the capital, Kingston, when their car was caught in a flooded crossing.
Fay hit Cuba with 80km/h winds and could drop as much as 203mm of rain as it crosses the island on a northward path, forecasters said.
It was expected to reach the Florida Straits later on Monday, where the US National Hurricane Centre said it would strengthen in the warm waters. It could hit the state and as a hurricane, which has minimum winds of 119km/h.
A hurricane watch was posted for much of Florida’s western and southern coasts.
Florida officials said they had deployed 500 National Guard troops and would keep some schools closed on Monday.
The hurricane centre said it expected Fay eventually to hit Florida’s western coast, which is well east of US oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, but Shell pulled 400 workers from offshore platforms over the weekend and Marathon Oil said it would take an unspecified number of workers off its offshore facilities. — Reuters