Hurricane Sandy, a Category 2 storm, carried heavy rains and strong winds reaching 105 mph (165 kph) as it swept across eastern Cuba's mountainous region on Thursday. While it continued to wreck havoc on Cuba's eastern countryside, it did not lose its strength as storms typically do once they make landfall. This has raised concerns that small mountain communities, who are still currently unheard from, may possibly not have been prepared.
It tore off roofs and destroyed the delicate tomato and coffee bean crops. Fortunately, it caused not a single fatality, but Sandy has been attributed two deaths in the Caribbean -- in Jamaica, an old man was pounded by a boulder that had rolled up onto his panel home and a woman was taken away by flashfloods while attempting to cross a river in Haiti.
Cuba's second biggest, eastern city, Santiago, was luckily spared while the provinces of Holguin, Granma, and Las Tunas felt the worst of Sandy. Around 5,000 tourists and 10,200 residents were preemptively evacuated from the coastal areas of Holguin. Another 3,000 were brought to higher grounds from the low lying regions of Las Tunas right before the storm struck the area.
After Cuba, Hurricane Sandy's forecasted track is estimated to pass through the Bahamas. This may possibly affect the southeastern Florida coast, Florida Bay, and the Upper Keys bringing in tropical storm type of conditions.
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