They are evacuating 70,000 people. “We won't be able to recover everything we lose.”

The element is expected to hit Jamaica first, from Monday to Tuesday, local time, and then to hit the southwestern coast of Cuba on Wednesday, forecasters from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast. They predict that in the next dozen or so hours, before the attack on Cuba, storm it will become a category 1 hurricane.

The wind strength is 75 kilometers per hour and is constantly increasing. Currently, the element is located over 500 kilometers southeast of the island of Grand Cayman.

Cuban authorities ordered the evacuation of over 70,000 residents on Monday. According to information from the local civil defense, quoted by media linked to the regime in Havana, the evacuation mainly concerns people who do not have the conditions to safely survive the disaster.

The cities where people were evacuated until Monday evening include Cienfuegos, San Antonio del Sur, Pinar del Rio, Imias, Guantanamo and Baracoa.

– Our concerns are the same as every Cuban when something like this happens. Homes will be damaged to some extent due to the high prices of building materials and the little attention the government pays to home repairs. We know that we will not be able to recover everything we lose, said a resident of Cuba in a conversation with journalists.

The pro-government daily Granma from Havana, citing Cuban meteorologists, reported that Rafael may pose a particular threat due to heavy rainfall. Due to the rainfall in eastern Cuba, classes at schools in Guantanamo and Holguin were canceled on Monday.

According to the authorities in Havana, preventive measures related to the breaking weather are intended to avoid human losses. They recalled that Hurricane Oscar, which hit this Caribbean island on October 21, led to the death of eight people. Shortly before that, Cuba experienced a massive paralysis of its energy system, which resulted in a power outage across the entire island.