Cuba evacuates 180,000 as tropical storm Elsa approaches

Cuba evacuated 180,000 peoplealong the island's southern region on Sunday amid fears that tropical storm Elsa could unleash heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people.

The Cuban government had opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm. Most of those evacuated went to relatives' homes, while some peoplesheltered at government facilities. Hundreds living in mountainous areas took refuge in natural caves that had been prepared for the emergency.

The storm's next target was Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 15 counties, including in Miami-Dade County where a highrise condominium building collapsed last week.

Late Sunday afternoon, Elsa's centre was about 20 kilometreswest of Cabo Cruz, Cuba, and was moving northwest at 22 km/h. It had maximum sustained winds of about 95 km/h, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The centre said the storm was expected to gradually weaken as it moves across Cuba on Monday.

"After Elsa emerges over the Florida Straits and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, some slight restrengthening is possible," it said.

The storm killed one person in St. Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy and a 75-year-old woman died Saturday in separate events in the Dominican Republic after walls collapsed on them, according to a statement from the Emergency Operations Center.

1st hurricane of Atlantic season

Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane up until Saturday morning, causing widespread damage in several eastern Caribbean islands on Friday as the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.

Among the hardest hit was Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, including 62 homes that completely collapsed as the government promised to find and fund temporary housing to avoid clustering people in shelters amid the pandemic.

Downed trees also were reported in Haiti, which is especially vulnerable to floods and landslides because of widespread erosion and deforestation.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Jamaica and from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic. A hurricane watch was issued for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba. Some of those provinces have reported a high number of COVID-19 infections, raising concerns that the storm could force large groups of people to seek shelter together.

Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record and also broke the record as the tropic's fastest-moving hurricane, clocking in at 50km/hon Saturday morning, according to Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

Portions of Cuba were forecast to get rainfall of 13 to 25 centimetresthrough Monday, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 centimetres. Jamaica was expected to get 10 to 20 centimetres, with maximum totals of 38 centimetres.