Now upgraded to a massive Category-2 storm, the hurricane swept over Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas and Haiti, damaging hundreds of homes, ruining crops and killing 11 people in eastern Cuba.
According to Cuban media reports, nine deaths occurred in Santiago de Cuba Province on Thursday while two bodies were recovered in Guantanamo state, killed by falling trees.
Cuban President Raul Castro is slated to travel to Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second largest city, on Friday to survey the damage.
On Wednesday, Sandy hammered Jamaica, where one person died, and it also unleashed its wrath on Haiti, where nine people were killed and three others were reported missing.
The Bahamas is also largely affected by the storm, with power and phone lines downed, tourists stranded and trees uprooted. Schools, government offices, airports and bridges were to be closed Thursday and Friday.
Forecasters have warned that Hurricane Sandy could combine with North American weather systems and change into a powerful hybrid that media in the United States have dubbed a “Frankenstorm.”
According to predictions of forecast models, the hurricane could collide with a seasonal “nor’easter” weather system before zeroing in on the US East Coast with potentially destructive ferocity.
“The high degree of blocking from eastern North America across the entire Atlantic Basin is expected to allow this unusual merger to take place,” said the Florida-based US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
In Florida, authorities have been already on alert for tropical storm conditions, warning residents to prepare an emergency plan and supplies.
Saturday 27 October 2012
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/26/268796/hurricane-sandy-kills-21-in-caribbean/
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