MIAMI — After slamming eastern Cuba early Thursday as a bigger and stronger storm than expected, Hurricane Sandy churned toward what looms as a wicked Halloween eve visit to the northeastern U.S. from a massive hybrid weather system quickly dubbed
MIAMI — After slamming eastern Cuba early Thursday as a bigger and stronger storm than expected, Hurricane Sandy churned toward what looms as a wicked Halloween eve visit to the northeastern U.S. from a massive hybrid weather system quickly dubbed “Franken-storm.”
Sandy was expected to generate at least one more day of nasty weather across much of Florida, with storms and tropical storm-force gusts brushing portions of the state coast Friday — conditions bad enough for public and private schools in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties to cancel classes.
But Florida will likely to escape largely unscathed from a powerful Category 2 hurricane that left a trail of collapsed buildings and bridges, shredded roofs, ruined crops and flooded hospitals across three Caribbean islands and the Bahamas, where some out islands were still under assault late Thursday.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center said the storm which continued to pack 105-mph winds was nearing Cat Cay in the Central Bahamas. The death toll also climbed to four, with at least three people killed in Haiti and one in Jamaica.
In Cuba, some of the heaviest damage appeared to be in Santiago de Cuba, close to where Sandy roared ashore at the Mar Verde beach area with estimated 115 mph winds, quickly ripping across the island. Jose Rubiera, the island’s chief meteorologist, told CBS News the impacts were “grave.”
Residents emerged Thursday to survey widespread damage: flattened or partially collapsed homes in some areas, smashed windows in tall buildings and roads blocked by debris — but there were no confirmed reports of deaths.
The Cuba News Agency reported that Palma Soriano, San Luis and Mella were the provincial towns most affected by Sandy. Jorge Cuevas Ramos, president of the Provincial Defense Council of Holguin, said the areas that sustained the most damage in the north coast province were the provincial capital itself, Banes, Antilla, Urbano Noris, Cueto, Rafael Freyre, Baguano and Mayari where part of the municipal hospital was destroyed. Most of the province lost power and newly planted beans and bananas were also damaged.
“The hurricane really hit us hard,” Norje Pupo, a 66-year-old retiree in Holguin told The Associated Press as he helped his son remove a large downed tree. “As you can see, we were very affected. The houses are not poorly made here, but some may have been damaged.”
Radio Rebelde, the state-controlled station, reported Thursday that President Raul Castro said he expected to visit eastern Cuba soon. He also said he sent a “message of hope to Santiagueros” and asked that residents “have confidence in the Revolution because it won’t leave anyone abandoned.”
In Haiti, relentless rains for a second day brought down a bridge and a cholera treatment center, triggered landslides and flooded hospitals, homes and roadways, leaving communities cut off. Three deaths were reported.
Government officials were still assessing damages but information coming into the United Nations Stabilization Mission painted a grim picture in a country already hit by Tropical Storm Isaac weeks earlier: isolated new cases of cholera plus the roads to Les Cayes in the southwest and another connecting Les Cayes and Jeremie in the Grande Anse were impassable.
In Jamaica, where authorities were only beginning to assess the extent of damage, there was coastal flooding around the capital city of Kingston and many communities across the country were cut off by downed trees and power lines and overflowing rivers. At least one death was reported on the island, a man crushed by a boulder.
In Florida, the NHC extended tropical storm watches and warnings along almost the entire Florida east coast from the Middle Keys to Fernandina Beach at the Florida-Georgia line. Though Sandy’s projected path through the Bahamas was expected to keep the strongest winds of the storm’s “dirty side” well offshore, forecasters said some areas along the coast — especially from Palm Beach to Brevard County, could see tropical storm force winds.
