Hurricane Paloma Lashes Cuba

The eye of Hurricane Paloma can be seen approaching the coast of southern Cuba on Saturday morning.

Only relatively modest damage was reported due to Hurricane Paloma’s path across eastern Cuba despite the storm’s Category 4 force just prior to landfall.

Disaster officials said the only significant damage occurred in the coastal city of Santa Cruz del Sur, where the storm roared ashore from the Caribbean Saturday night with wind speeds said to have been up to 120 mph (195 km/h).

Cuban authorities reported that 400 houses in the city were destroyed and another 4,000 were damaged.

Cuba is said to have the most sophisticated natural disaster-preparedness system in the Americas, and the Communist regime evacuated more than 1.2 million people as a precaution before Paloma’s arrival.

Hurricane Paloma later spun itself out over the Atlantic just south of the Bahamas.

Earlier this hurricane season, Gustav and Ike were blamed for seven deaths and damage in Cuba that was officially estimated at $10 billion.

Hurricane Paloma Track

Radar Loop: INSMET (Cuban Institute of Meteorology)