Idalia Rakes Cuba, Heads Toward Florida As Strengthening Hurricane
The storm now known as Hurricane Idalia raked western Cuba and its famed tobacco lands of Pinar del Río with powerful winds and heavy rains yesterday before moving north and taking aim at Florida. Tens of thousands were evacuated from Pinar del Río province in advance of the storm, according to Reuters.
Hirochi Robaina was at his tobacco farm in Pinar del Río when the storm hit. “The winds are very strong, and the rain is constant,” he said around 11 p.m. on Monday night, when Idalia was pummeling Cuba with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. “God is with us,” he said.
CNN reported that more than four inches of rain fell in Pinar del Río. Cuba’s state-run Radio Rebelde said that much of the region was without power, and there were also some power outages in Havana due to the storm.
Early this morning, Robaina gave an update as to how he and his farm fared. “We are well,” he said of his family. “But it’s horrible, horrible.” He didn’t elaborate.
Idalia was a strong tropical storm when it hit Cuba, striking near the Guanahacabibes Peninsula in the far western portion of the country. Last September, the much stronger Hurricane Ian swept across the heart of Pinar del Río with winds of 120 miles per hour, destroying thousands of tobacco-curing barns (including barns on Robaina’s farm) and killing five people. The damage resulted in severe setbacks to Cuba’s tobacco infrastructure, leading to what has been called the country’s smallest tobacco crop in history. Hurricane Ian went on to Florida, killing 150 people, knocking out power to several cigar companies and causing $113 billion in damages to that state.
“It’s surprisingly bad considering that this was not as powerful a storm as Ian,” says Patrick Oppmann, the Havana bureau chief for CNN, who lives in Cuba. “Flooding all across Pinar, rivers coming over banks and lots of trees down. Really difficult conditions as people there still recovering from damage from Ian.”
As this story was being posted, Hurricane Idalia had sustained winds of 80 miles an hour and was moving north at eight miles per hour toward Florida’s west coast and panhandle, over extremely warm waters, which is fuel for hurricanes. Tampa’s airport shut down just after midnight, and some Floridians were evacuating from the coast as the storm approached.
Western Florida is a cigar-world hotspot. Tampa is the headquarters of J.C. Newman, the U.S. headquarters of Arturo Fuente and it’s also the home of Oliva Tobacco Co. Davidoff of Geneva runs its U.S. operations out of Pinellas Park, to Tampa’s west, and Rocky Patel Premium Cigars is headquartered to the south, in Naples.
Idalia is expected to strengthen further, becoming a major hurricane before making landfall on Wednesday.
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