Thursday, March 28

Hurricane Ian leaves 23 victims in Florida while losing steam on the way to Virginia


When it is already entering the coast of South Carolina with less intensity, on its way to North Carolina and Virginia and after having devastated large areas of Florida, Cyclone Ian, which has now regained its category 1 hurricane status, the least powerful , you can glimpse the end of their activity. It also seems the time to take stock of the damage caused by the destructive weather phenomenon. “The reconstruction is going to take months or years”, said the president of the United States, Joe Biden. At the moment, accounting for casualties is proving to be quite a complicated task. The authorities of Florida, the place where it has left the most destruction, gave the figure of 23 deceased on Friday, although some media assure that the number is higher. The CNN television network raises the figure to 45 dead. The count becomes complicated as it was in its day that of Katrina and it will only be possible to have a definitive figure after a few weeks.

Ian crossed the island of Cuba last Tuesday with winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour and a balance of three deaths and innumerable material damages. The hurricane caused a general blackout throughout the island that has since suffered three consecutive days of power failure. At the same time, there has also been an almost total blockade of internet traffic, which coincided with several protests, the largest in the country since last year.

As Efe was able to verify, more than a hundred people gathered early Friday night in the Playa district to protest the lack of electricity. Soon after, many police officers arrived at the scene, quickly surrounding the demonstrators, and then four guaguas (buses) with young people dressed in civilian clothes arrived at the scene and began to shout slogans in favor of the revolution.

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According to videos and testimonies on social networks, there have also been other protests, such as cacerolazos and roadblocks with the trees fallen by the hurricane, in Holguín (east), Matanzas (west) and in other municipalities of Havana such as Boyeros, Habana from the East, Marianao and Cerro. The Netblocks platform returned this Friday to denounce, as it did on Thursday, the almost total collapse of Internet traffic from Cuba, something that this network specialist attributes to a decision by the country’s government.

dissipate this saturday

Meanwhile, this Saturday South Carolina has gone from having winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour to winds of 50 kilometers per hour, in measurements made by the National Hurricane Center (CNH) this Saturday, as it passes through North Carolina.

“It should dissipate over south-central Virginia” – where it is currently -, CHN spokesmen have declared. However, the risk of rain and flooding in central Appalachia and the northeastern United States remains. The US president, Joe Biden, urged citizens to heed the warning calls from local authorities, such as in South Carolina, where they were asked not to drive on flooded roads.

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Some 575,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday night in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, according to the specialized website PowerOutage. In Florida, the area most damaged by the hurricane, in addition to the high number of victims, the material damage is “historic” due to unprecedented flooding, according to the assessment of Governor Ron De Santis. More than 1.4 million Florida customers were still without power Friday night, two days after Ian hit.

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According to early estimates, Ian could cost insurers tens of billions of dollars and will weigh on US growth, especially from flight cancellations and damage to agricultural production. Meanwhile, he continues the search for the 17 passengers of a migrant boat that capsized Wednesday near the Florida Keys.


www.elperiodico.com

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