Tropical Storm Rafael gains steam, churns toward Jamaica, Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) -Tropical Storm Rafael gained steam late on Monday as it churned northward toward Cuba, which is still struggling to recover from a nationwide blackout and hurricane two weeks ago.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Rafael would see “steady or rapid intensification” before plowing across western Cuba with maximum predicted winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph) by Wednesday.

The Miami-based forecaster also warned of dangerous storm surge and destructive waves in the Cayman Islands, and said Rafael would intensify further late on Tuesday before heading toward Cuba.

The timing could not be worse for the Communist-run island, which last month suffered a collapse of its national electric grid, leaving an estimated 10 million people without power for several days. Many of the island’s residents still face hours-long outages daily due to generation shortfalls.

Hurricane Oscar made landfall in Cuba around the same time as the blackout, throwing a one-two punch that has sapped precious resources in a country suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

Rafael is predicted to pass near the capital Havana. Its decrepit and antiquated housing and infrastructure are particularly vulnerable to strong winds.

On Monday evening, skies were mostly clear across western Cuba, but residents said they were preparing for the worst.

“We are working together among neighbors … taking in those who live in poorly built homes,” said Natacha Velazquez, whose house fronts the ocean in Baracoa, just west of the capital. “But we are also worried for our lives.”

Authorities have already evacuated more than 66,000 Cubans from far-eastern Cuba, in Guantanamo province, ahead of predicted heavy rains and flooding early this week. Soils in the province were saturated by flooding and damage from Oscar, the government said.

Plans were under way to evacuate thousands of residents in Pinar del Rio province, on the island’s far-western end.

Several Cuban provinces had partially or fully suspended classes, and the Ministry of Transportation had begun canceling some bus and train routes, officials said.

The government encouraged residents, many still largely without communication because of power outages, to dial a government emergency phone number to follow the storm’s progress.

The NHC said much of Cuba’s western half was under a hurricane watch, but warned that the storm’s eventual track over the Gulf of Mexico, towards the United States, remained uncertain.

The system is about 175 miles (280 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica, packing maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph).

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; additional reporting by Nelson Acosta, Editing by Rod Nickel)