Three dead, 172 injured after tornado hits Havana
- Witness said city’s 10th of October borough ‘looks like a horror movie’, with cars blown over and power lines down
A tornado and pounding rains smashed into the eastern part of Cuba’s capital throughout Sunday night, toppling trees, bending power lines and flinging shards of metal roofing through the air as the storm cut a path of destruction across eastern Havana.
Power was cut to many areas and President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Monday that at least three people were killed and 172 injured.
Julio Menendez, a 33-year-old restaurant worker, said Havana’s 10th of October borough “looks like a horror movie”.
“From one moment to the next, we heard a noise like an aeroplane falling out of the sky. The first thing I did was go hug my daughters,” who are nine and 12, he said.
Driver Oster Rodriguez said amid a fierce storm, what looked like a thick, swirling cloud touched down in the central plaza of the Reparto Modelo neighbourhood “like a fireball”. He saw a bus blown over, though he said the driver escaped unharmed.